The Best Schedule

The schedule at Lakeland High School has been modified all school year due to COVID-19. Classes are shorter and students are released earlier. 

Many students enjoy the schedule Lakeland currently has. But some teachers don’t think the school day is long enough and don’t like the schedule.

Ms. Hall, an english teacher at Lakeland, is a teacher who feels the classes are not long enough. She said teaching all of the material is very difficult to accomplish in a 48 minute period. 

She also feels like students are sometimes tired by the end of the day, but doesn’t think it’s a constant. 

“If I were to choose our school’s schedule, I would choose to have 55 minute class periods” said Hall. It would be a good time between the current 48 minutes and 60 minutes. She would like it if the schedule went from 8AM to 2:30PM. 

“Psychologically, 8:00 is much better for teens than 7:35AM. Plus, with 55 minute classes, we would still be finished at a reasonable 2:30PM time.” said Hall.

Many teachers this year have not taught as much material to students as they have in past years because the schedule is shorter. They do not want to put too much stress on the students with extra homework either.

Zoey Roman, a senior at Lakeland High School, thinks the schedule is better than it was last year. “I feel like teachers made the amount of work smaller because of the shorter class periods.”

Another teacher that has some great thoughts about the schedule is the Spanish teacher from Lakeland, Mrs. Hasz. She would like to go back to the schedule Lakeland had before COVID-19. She thinks that 55 minute periods would be better than the current 48 minute periods.

She said that longer periods provide more time for students to practice their work, and allows teachers to give more and better instruction. 

Hasz said she gets tired from the 48 minute periods with very little time for a break. “I am sure students feel very similar in that they are cramming and jamming to get things done in a short period of time.” 

“I have time to teach all the material, I am not sure if students have enough time to learn it all.” said Hasz.