By Maile Biehl
As the 2020-2021 school year rolls around, schools are facing many difficult adjustments. Mashpee Middle High School (MMHS) rewrote the schedule for students to follow in order to best follow COVID-19 guidelines. It has been an adjustment for students and staff alike as a big change has been made.
Notably, one of the biggest changes has been a shift from 50 minute classes to 85 minute classes. In order for MMHS to fit 85-minute classes into its schedule, they shifted to two days known as A and B days compared to the seven-day rotation in previous years. Each day this year consists of four class periods all spanning 85 minutes in order to lower the amount of classrooms and interactions students and staff have. Each A day has periods 1-4 and each B day has period 5-8.
Another major change that has taken place this school year was the introduction of a directed study period for every student that takes place during period 8. In previous years, only certain students would get a directed study period, and this only happened if the student was not enrolled in a class that period. This most frequently happened to students in grades 11 and 12.
The Falconer spoke to a few staff and students to get their opinions and feelings on the new class schedule.
As the 2020-2021 school year rolls around, schools are facing many difficult adjustments. Mashpee Middle High School (MMHS) rewrote the schedule for students to follow in order to best follow COVID-19 guidelines. It has been an adjustment for students and staff alike as a big change has been made.
Notably, one of the biggest changes has been a shift from 50 minute classes to 85 minute classes. In order for MMHS to fit 85-minute classes into its schedule, they shifted to two days known as A and B days compared to the seven-day rotation in previous years. Each day this year consists of four class periods all spanning 85 minutes in order to lower the amount of classrooms and interactions students and staff have. Each A day has periods 1-4 and each B day has period 5-8.
Another major change that has taken place this school year was the introduction of a directed study period for every student that takes place during period 8. In previous years, only certain students would get a directed study period, and this only happened if the student was not enrolled in a class that period. This most frequently happened to students in grades 11 and 12.
The Falconer spoke to a few staff and students to get their opinions and feelings on the new class schedule.
Mrs. Kelly Fena, a Spanish teacher here at MMHS frequently known by students as Señora Fena, gave us some insight on how this schedule is affecting her teaching. “[Learning a language] just takes time, a little each day. This new schedule does not provide much time to work with the language.” She emphasized the important of daily practice in learning a language and said that this schedule, although beneficial for the situation the school is taking on, is not beneficial for learning a language in the long run.
Mr. Andy Troyanos, a music teacher here at MMHS, had opinions on the schedule as well: “The longer class times took a bit of time to get used to and when we are able to play in school and be able to rehearse again, that 90 minutes will be so valuable.” He believes that in the future, this new class schedule will provide a lot more practice time for students in music classes.
From teacher's perspectives, the class schedule provides different pros and cons for students. As explained by Señora Fena, a foreign language takes a little time every day to practice and this schedule limits that for students. Mr. Troyanos on the other hand feels that this schedule would provide his students with the extra time they need to rehearse music.
Students at MMHS also had some opinions on the schedule. We asked two students from the class of 2022, who are in the eleventh grade this school year. Juliana Reynolds expressed her gratitude to the way Mashpee’s administration has adapted their schedule to accommodate the unexpected events of the school year. “The way that the hybrid learning has been set up was probably the best way for Mashpee to go; I’ve seen how other schools in Massachusetts are doing learning, and hybrid seems to be the most successful and beneficial for the students and staff included.” Juliana is a student in the hybrid system in Mashpee.
On the other hand, Averi Fournier felt that the schedule lacked in some aspects. “There aren’t enough B days… There has been a significantly less number of B days than A days this school year.” For many students, this point that has been brought up proves true and troublesome. Students and staff have also expressed their concerns about the lack of B days. MMHS has addressed the situation with the B days and has figured out ways to add more B days into the schedule by adding B weeks when there would normally be A weeks (including later this month).
This new schedule has come in a time of significant difficulty for school districts and Mashpee has provided their students with a schedule that allows them to keep the number of classes they had in previous years while also keeping their students safe. Students and staff have praised them on this and although there have been mistakes in the schedule that have proven inconvenient for students and staff, the MMHS administration is working to fix these errors.