Imagine you’re walking down a school hallway trying to find your class. You look at the room numbers, “105, 106, 107, wait, 125?” You finally find the right room, only to realize that it’s a Wednesday, and your next class is block 5, not 3!  This is what students and teachers experience trying to navigate the Harwood hallways. This year, not only the room numbers are wack, but the schedule too. There are several problems with it that affect even the longtime teachers. For example, during shorter weeks, the schedule has a different layout than during normal weeks. This causes the schedule to have very little consistency and many students ask, “What block do I go to next?”

 Bewildered by Navigation
The room numbers have been confusing many new Harwood students. New student Kai Haddock said, “On my first day, I went to room 307, which is the room I thought it was, because it was Latin. But it turns out I went to 307A, which was one of the 307s. I didn’t know there were two 307s.” Harwood’s layout can be disorienting.

 Bewildered by Schedule
Room numbers aren’t the only thing confusing to students this year. The schedule now has two days known as gold days, two days known as black days, and one white day with all seven blocks. It was made in order to have more flexible ELOs and for teachers to have more contact time with students. However, there are problems with it. When a week is shorter than five days, the seven block days are taken out, causing 

black days to become gold days and gold days to turn black. Confusing, right? Another issue is that during the seven block days, the classes are all out of order. The blocks are ordered 1, 2, 5, 6, 3, 7, and 4.  Blocks 7 and 4 come last so that tech center students can take their required courses. Many students have taken to calling this “Wacky Wednesday,” due to the odd sequence of the classes. When asked about this, Adam Sargent said, “I like the goals of the schedule. But in practice, it’s a little confusing. I’m constantly wondering when classes end… i’m always having to refer to the schedule because it just changes from day to day.”  Even veteran teachers are confused by the schedule!

  How to Fix It
Teachers and students alike have been perplexed by the room numbers and new schedule at Harwood. School should not be as tricky to navigate as it currently is. In order to prevent further confusion, there should be an easy-to-understand map placed in convenient areas of the hallways, and a change in the schedule resulting in more consistency between four day and five day weeks. Students must be relieved of uncertainty so that they can lead less stressful school lives.