Online learning has its ups and downs, but the biggest struggle that students had was in the beginning of this school year.
Our schedules first changed by not having our normal schedule of all six classes, each being a hour long. Now, it changed to “A” days and “B” days, or as Utica likes to call them, “Orange” days and “Black” days. In these two days, classes are split in half, having your first three hours on one day and your last three on the other day, but the catch it that the duration of your class is now two hours long.
This was a big struggle for most students because the classes were back-to-back with only a lunch in between your second and third class.
Lectures became so tiring, feeling repetitive and students were falling off-track. It was so hard to fully comprehend what was being taught when class felt so long, the only thing on your mind was when was class going to end.
A quick fix was made when Utica Community Schools added an extra break into our schedule, called Student Support Time.
“I use Student Support Time when I need help on an assignment or when I need extra help to understand a topic. The meeting is a one on one call with your teacher where there is really no pressure of you bogging down the class with excessive question asking,” said senior Riley Greenwood. “It is convenient, not stressful, and helpful. I would say that the new schedule allows me to gain barings throughout my day and the week.”
This break was in between your first and second class, so now students have a break between each class. Enough time to grab a snack, do your homework, study for a test, or what was the most help- calling your teachers.
“I really like it. Often when I have homework, or didn’t understand a quiz or test, I usually use Student Support Time to get that extra help and get the chance to retake certain things,” said senior Dayana Medina Forgione. “I find it really helpful, especially because I find online schooling to be a bit difficult and stressful compared to when we were all in school and had face-to-face learning. I don’t have anything that I dislike about it.”
If you need that extra time to have a one-on-one with your teacher, Student Support Time was your best friend. Many students took advantage of this and got the extra help that they needed for whichever class they were most struggling with, or even for the classes that they had a quick question on the homework.
“I use Student Support Time to reach out to kids with missing work or to notify them to retake a test. When I do talk to students during that time we usually go over review problems to reinforce the material or help them with any misunderstandings,” said teacher Michael Cubitt. “I do like the Student Support Time for sure, it gives the students an opportunity to reach out and et help. It is intended for struggling students, but often times, unfortunately, the struggling students aren’t the self-motivated ones to use that time. That is the only bad thing about it.”
Us students can see a very big change in our mental state with this break added, it not only helps our grades a ton, but it also gives our brain a little bit of time to rest.
On behalf of the Arrow staff, as well as all of the students of Utica, we would love to just give a big “thanks” to UCS for giving us this extra break. We really needed it and we are all using it to our advantage. Thank you UCS!