Harwood has had many schedules in the past. We’ve had static schedules, hybrid schedules, and everything in between. So what does the future for Harwood’s bell schedule look like?
Each year Jessica Deane sends out a form to get everyone’s opinion for the upcoming years schedules. When these schedules are decided they take a lot into consideration, including how much ELO time there should be, how long periods should be, and when we should have TA (Teacher Advisory).
In all of my years here at Harwood, we haven’t had a single year where the schedule has been repeated: every year it’s been some new variation of the last. For example in 2020, when we had in-person and online school, we wouldn’t have class on Wednesdays. In 2021 when we had full in-person days, the schedule switched to full ELO Wednesdays. That was discontinued because most of those days, Seniors wouldn’t even bother to show up.
With that, what will next year be like?
No more Wednesdays! This year’s schedule has been a bit complicated with Wednesdays being 7 block days. 7 block days from my perspective are really stressful, because having 45 minute blocks and switching classes 7 times is just too much for me. Especially when the order is 1-5-2-6-3-7-4. With there being no Wednesdays next year, that will help with how tired students are after the day ends.
Another one of the main changes is TA after lunch. TA has been one of the more challenging things in the schedule due to how controversial it’s been. They can’t have it at the beginning of the day because anyone who could drive themselves wouldn’t bother showing up to school. That means they can’t have it last block for the same reason of people leaving school early.
What’s the perfect time for TA?
It doesn’t appear like there is one! After moving TA from before to after the first block this year, it is moving even LATER in the day next year. Next year, for some people, it’s after lunch and for others it’s after their block three/seven. For most people this would be just weird timing for TA.
The other side to this will be on “Gold” days TA is only going to be 10 minutes, but on “Black” days TA will become 35 minutes.
Why would they make this change?
It shifts the amount of ELO time and it makes more time for assemblies to happen. The amount of ELO time is shorter during each day. I personally think that ELO time can be a really helpful way to get caught up on work when you miss a day or if you just get behind. So to have less doesn’t feel like I would have enough time to actually get all of my work done. ELO’s being 40-55 minutes isn’t that much to begin with, but now cutting it down to 30-40 minutes will give everyone less time to complete work. With that said, we will be having ELO five times a week, instead of four, so it’s only a total of 10 minutes less over two weeks.
With TA being longer, what would be done with the extra time? Harwood Assemblies have been a pretty prominent topic recently, do we love them or do we hate them? Assemblies can be pretty fun to go to but to put time aside every week is a lot. With so much extra time, do we just use this as a study hall?
Overall, next year’s changes are going to be helpful and lower stress levels among students without Wednesdays. This change will remedy the confusion of our schedule now.
Cheers to no more Wednesdays!
