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September 24, 2012

DHS students adapt to new scheduling

Derrick Miller The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN — A little controversy arose when Duncan High School administrators chose to return to traditional scheduling after having used block scheduling for years.

But students are adapting to the change in class schedules, facing seven 50-minute classes instead of four 90-minute classes.

“It’s definitely a big difference,” 10th-grader Amber Wainscott said.

The high school administration could see the pros and cons of both styles of class schedules.

By switching back to traditional scheduling, the administration aimed to calm concerns of parents and students.

Principal Gary Reed said the addition of Common Core Standards was the final push to bring the return of traditional scheduling.

The idea is to provide more classes to give students a better background and understanding of those subjects.

Reed said the administrators had also fielded phone calls from parents who didn’t think their teens had enough homework to do each night.

When it comes to classes that were nine weeks long in block scheduling, they have become semester long classes.

Classes that were semester long now last the entire school year.

“There’s a lot more homework,” Katy Weaks, 10th-grader, said. “With the 1 1/2 hour long classes, I just kind of got bored.”

But the change in schedule didn’t just impact the length or number of classes students took at one time.

The school day begins at 8 a.m., which is 30 minutes earlier than recent years.

This also means the end of the school day comes earlier for students.

The time between classes went from 10 minutes to 5 minutes. And the lunch period has gone from an hour to 40 minutes.

Reed said there may be less time between classes and for lunch, but students should have enough time to get where they need to go on time.

He said this may allow for less conversation in the hallways and keeps students moving toward class.

Weaks and Wainscott said it can be difficult to stop by their lockers during class because there isn’t always enough time to do so.

To adapt, they’re taking more books with them to class.

Both recognize there are pros and cons to both types of class schedules.

And they have their own opinions on which they prefer.

Sure they may not know how much time the administration has put into determining which schedule type to use.

But they know how vastly different the two scheduling types can be.

Wainscott isn’t thrilled about having some of the same classes all year long, but recognized some classes don’t lend themselves to filling an entire 90-minute period.

Weaks said it can be difficult to cover an entire course worth of material in block scheduling because all the subject matter is crammed into a semester.

Additionally, Weaks said the change is number of classes has had an impact on her group of friends in a positive way.

“I get to interact and make more friends by having more classes,” Weaks said. “I’ve made more friends this year.”

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