Return to the Standard 85 Minute Block Schedule

Photo of the “new” schedule

Now that we have returned to the standard schedule for a few weeks, how does AISG feel about the return of these much longer and much more frequent blocks, and how does the school feel about the future return of after school activities and the removal of Co-curricular activity Wednesday?

When asked about the topic, Junior Andrew Z. said, “it’s tough to stay focused for 85 minutes after having such short and infrequent classes for a long time, but I’m glad that these long blocks are back as it allows us to cover much more content.”

Generally speaking, most people recognize the benefits of the return of 85-minute blocks however, not everyone is crying with joy because of their return. With Junior Borui C. saying, “I’m no longer able to do a majority of my homework at school because I have so much less free block time.”

Savyasachi S. echoes this sentiment, saying, “I can no longer mess around during free block as much, and staying focused in class is very hard, but I realize how important getting more class time is to understanding and covering the content covered in my classes.”

The return to 85-minute blocks is a good sign going into the future, it means we’re well on track to returning to our truly normal schedule with a 4-day rotation and after school activities.

Several students have also voiced their concerns regarding the time we have already lost to the schedule we followed during semester 1. With Andrew Z. saying, “I am especially concerned over my IB Bio course because of the sheer amount of time we have lost with no plans for us to recuperate all that lost time.”

Alex K. says, “I kind of like the current Wednesday schedule, because it gives us more time to work on stuff like the EE and college counseling, important topics that we wouldn’t get time to work on otherwise.”

Hopefully, the 2 weeks we go on break COVID doesn’t resurface and the school can go through with the plans to return to our truly normal schedule.