August 19, 2011
As the start of the 2011-2012 school year draws closer and summer
comes to an end, students will have to start to think about the
newest changes to the schedule. After much consideration of the
School Board, an academic advisory period is being added back into
the school year.
Michigan has a very rigorous curricula that our school must
follow, and since many students saw grades dropping when seminar was
taken out of the school day, the schedule was changed again.
Last year with the switch from the four block day to a six period
day, seminar was removed from the schedule. Instead of taking
seminar out completely - like it was during the last school year -
the School Board has decided to add an academic advisory into the
schedule for this year. It will be one day a week, on Wednesdays,
and it is in place to try to improve academic achievement.
The “Super Wednesday”, as it’s called, will be a 40 minute period
to take place right after third period every Wednesday. Students can
travel to their teacher’s classrooms to get extra help, and have
three minutes to get to the room after academic advisory starts.
Students can work on homework or study for upcoming tests or
quizzes or they can use the time to retake tests or quizzes they
might have missed or done poorly on the first time. Any counseling
or school business will also be conducted during this time.
7th hour classes won’t run on Wednesday’s and extra-curricular
activities won’t be allowed to start until 3:10 p.m. This is so
teachers involved in after school events can attend staff meetings
and help students after school one day a week.
With the addition of Super Wednesday, six minutes is also being
added onto the end of the school day, so school will now end at 2:01
p.m.
instead of 1:55 p.m. as it did last year. This added time includes
additional passing time on Wednesdays with the extra period, and
also gives teachers more time to show the Cat’s Eye News.
For the freshman coming in, this will be almost like the
enrichment they had in middle school except there won’t be any
projects: it will just be up to the student to decide how they want
to spend it.
After the removal of seminar during the last school year many
students will be glad to have it back, even if it’s only one day a
week. No matter what grade students are in, the addition of a
seminar-like period will be a welcome addition to the school day. So
let’s not abuse the privilege of in-school time to work on homework
and study by fooling around and being unproductive.
