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Students adjust to a new routine
Photo: Katelyn Grisham
A student walks to their next class. Students have felt more calm since implementing the new schedule.
You wake up in a frenzy because your alarm didn’t go off, quickly get dressed, brush your teeth and run downstairs. But, when you get to the car, you realize that school doesn’t start for another hour. With a sigh of relief, you go back inside and hit the snooze.
This late start time is just one of the things that has changed about the St. George’s Collierville Campus this year, and many students are enthusiastic about the changes.
Of the 191 responses taken from a survey of Collierville Campus students and teachers, 37.2 percent of respondents rated the new schedule a five, 39.8 percent a four, 17.3 percent a three, 4.2 percent a two and 1.6 percent a one. When asked to use one word to describe the new schedule, responses included “confusing,” “efficient” and “stress-free.”
Let’s start with the morning. School now begins at 8:30 a.m on everyday except for Wednesdays, where school starts at 9:00 a.m. due to faculty meetings. This new start time was implemented so that students would get more sleep and thus be more refreshed and focused during the day.
“It’s more refreshing because you are so used to getting up and getting here at 8,” junior Winston Margaritis said, “but now you feel like you are a little bit late but you are actually early.”
Another new thing in the mornings is morning tutorial. As opposed to last year where tutorial was only in the afternoon, tutorials now take place from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. as well as 3:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. Seventh grader Alyssa Aghabeg appreciates this change.
“There’s more chances to meet with the teacher and ask questions,” Alyssa Aghabeg said.
Upper School Mathematics Chair Mrs. Page McMullen agreed with Aghabeg as she appreciates it for helping students with math.
“I think in math it’s good because it spreads out the number of students I have to help at one time,” Mrs. McMullen said.
Another new component of the schedule is that only four classes meet each day as opposed to the previous six or seven, depending on your schedule, and these classes meet for 70 minutes instead of 55. There are some mixed feelings about this new implementation, but overall, students say they feel more relaxed.
Senior Kendall LoCascio enjoys the schedule’s resemblance to a college’s schedule.
“In college you only meet two, maybe three times a week for a long period of time,” LoCascio said. “I like that I’m getting a little glimpse into it.”
However, LoCascio believes that this structure only works well for upperclassmen.
“I don’t think a sixth grader needs to be exposed to college life,” LoCascio said. “They really need structure.”
Some students love everything about the spread out classes. For Margaritis, he enjoys being able to take time in classes to learn.
“You can get more done, and you are not trying to cram everything in,” Margaritis said. “You can harness all of the information into one class period.”
Aghabeg agreed, citing the smoother transition time between classes.
“I like there is a break between classes,” Aghabeg said. “Some teachers let us do homework for the last 10 minutes so you can get a head start.”
In addition to these day-to-day changes, St. George’s is now on a semester schedule as opposed to a trimester schedule, meaning there will be report cards and exams only twice a year. All around, students agreed that switching to semesters was a good decision.
“I love semesters,” Mrs. McMullen said. “With trimesters, we were having to stop and review so often. We only have that slow down and review twice.” Mrs. McMullen also likes that, now with only two report card periods, teachers are required to have the same amount of test grades as they did within the trimesters, but they now the whole semester to do it.
LoCascio also believes that semesters give more time to go in depth into subjects.
“I never liked the trimesters because I feel like as soon as we got really into stuff it was time for exams,” LoCascio said. “I was never happy leaving at Christmas and then coming back three weeks later and having to remember everything we had talked about prior to that.”
Margaritis agreed with LoCascio, appreciating the new changes as a whole.
“You get more out of those classes,” Margaritis said. “It is a much more efficient schedule.”
