As the new semester starts students get a new schedule. By the time the second semester comes, everyone is already settled into their first semester classes but now, they get new ones. Students have different opinions on the new semester and are speaking out about how it messed up their regular routines.
Freshman students who are new to the school need to navigate their way to classes that they didn’t know before and it can be hard to adjust to the new classrooms and teachers. “I was fine in my first semester classes but now I hardly know my teachers. The teachers I had in the beginning were great and I have already connected with them,” freshman Nicole Dirk said.
Students who have been to this school a little longer are going through the process again. These students have favorite teachers they already like and don’t want to change them. If a teacher fits a student’s needs best, in some situations they are not allowed to switch back to that teacher, which can feel unfair.
New scheduling means more work for the counselors. They have to prepare two schedules for each student according to their needs. “It’s frustrating because it should not take as much time as a counselor to do second-semester schedules and we should work on other more important things for students,” Counselor Mackenzie Shay said.
People who like the change argue that getting a new schedule is good for students. Students would be able to meet more new people and become friends with everyone, but by getting a new schedule they lose having those friends in the previous class and lose connection with those they friended before. “I lost connection with some of the friends I made in my classes. We were very close but now we don’t have much to talk about anymore,” Dirk said.
High schoolers struggle enough already with school and do not need to add more stress. Students are already comfortable with their teachers and how they grade so it adds more stress that students have to worry about. “I think it is hard because of the policy that students can’t change their schedules how they want to and it makes me feel bad how we can’t because I feel for them and want them to have the schedule they want,” Shay said.
Teachers also have to adjust to their schedules and new students. Teachers need to rediscover how their students learn to try to be better teachers. “I think it’s difficult because I have students who are new and I have to try to adjust to students who are used to being taught one way and not the other which can be difficult,” social studies teacher Sophie Ehrlich said.
