What Do You Want to See Next Year?
As the 2016-17 school year comes to a close, our eyes are set on next year. Signing up for classes, changing schedules, and even beginning college prep are the beginning steps of preparing for the next year of high school. Expectations of teachers and administrators are tentatively high as our still developing high school continues to rearrange and modify our class schedules and academic program to encourage progressive and efficient learning.
But what do our students expect? What do they want to see in their 2017-18 school year? To answer this question, we asked a handful of current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors as well as teachers what change or difference they want to see or affect in the coming school year.
To our surprise, 9 of the 20 people we interviewed wanted to see a change in the way Lab Days were run. Most people felt that their tutorials and elective classes on Lab Days were not an efficient use of their time or that they were organized in an unproductive way. According to one comment by Mr. Reilly, Dean of the Class of 2019, we will see some changes concerning lab day next year.
Have an idea for next year? Send us an email at ejorgensen@gcschool.org and we’ll publish the best suggestions in a follow-up article!
Question: What is something that you would want to be different for next school year?
Answers:
Freshmen:
Casey ‘20:
“Cleaner bathrooms”
Chase ‘20:
“I want a tutorial every day instead of our last class”
Isabella ‘20:
“Less homework.”
Jemima ‘20:
“I wish there were school buses.”
Lucas ‘20:
“The lab classes are really boring and none of the teachers want to be there”
Sophomores:
Eden ‘19:
“I wish that teachers had more structured guidelines for what should be taught in their class. For example, right now in English all of the classes are reading different books and it makes each student have a different learning experience which could be a disadvantage or advantage depending on the student.”
Grace ‘19:
“Double tutorial. That’s what we had last year; I thought it worked better… I find I manage my time better with two periods.”
Isabel ‘19:
“Wednesdays. I don’t like the long tutorial; I want it like it it was last year”
Jake ‘19:
“I don’t like the weird curvy benches because they’re attached to the wall at a 90 degree angle and it creates unrealistic expectations of people’s posture.”
Sam ‘19:
“I want a more organized P.E. system.”
Juniors:
Ali ‘18:
“Better management of Wednesdays and lab days.”
Begonia ‘18:
“I wish we had five days of classes instead of lab day; make more time for clubs to meet.”
Jane ‘18:
“I want lab day to be changed in terms of the ninth and tenth grade curriculum.”
Angelika ‘18:
“Change the timing of Unplug to Connect day”
Juli ‘18:
“Have 11:00 starts earlier in the year for seniors”
Teachers:
Ms. Polanski, French teacher:
“I would like policies about using classrooms during lunch to be more specific. We could be a little bit more clarifications. I understand that during lunch when you relax the commons are full, students need another place to relax. I wish we could provide that and still have the classrooms remain clean. I don’t think we treat the people who clean up the school after hours. It’s not fair to them.”
Mr. Reilly, Dean of Class of 2019 and history teacher:
“I want the 2019ers to stay as strong as they have been, but a little more structure on lab day. We’ll probably see progress concerning lab day, but not a finished product next year. Personally, I want some more balance between ‘deaning’ and teaching. I’m looking forward to an amazing spectrum of success between academic, athletic, and other work.”
Mr. Johnson, Latin teacher:
“Better scheduling for latin.”
Ms. Livingston, history teacher:
“Better organization of Wednesdays”
Ms. Wood, assistant director of college counseling:
“I’d like to see more students going up to students that they don’t know, pushing themselves to talk to people that are outside of the world that they’ve created for themselves here, and expanding their world within Grace.”