by Alaa Wedaa
Patriot Time (PT) is change in schedule this school year, which is supposed to benefit students who don’t have a pride, or need that extra time to help bring up their grade in a class. Instead of our normal 90-minute class period, we now have 83. The extra 7 minutes per class goes to Patriot Time, which lasts about twenty-four minutes. Every day after the end of first block, we flex to a certain class. On A days, we flex back to A day classes and flex to B day classes on B days.
So, to put that in perspective, during PT you would start by flexing to first block, on the next A day with PT, you would go to second block, and so on. A full rotation would take around two weeks, or more, for each day. Patriot Time every Wednesday is dedicated to homeroom, and there is no Patriot Time during days with activity schedules.
“It’s really confusing, ‘cause sometimes you think it’s gonna be a certain block but then you’re completely wrong, it’s just a waste of time,” explained Isaac Martinez, sophomore. It has been a pretty hard adaption from last year’s schedule, especially for the students who were at the school in previous years. This is of hassle for something that may not even work, most of the time, students have no ideas where they need to go.
It may be early in the school year but this idea doesn’t seem to work for a lot of students and teachers, especially in the long run. Students use this period as a break time, and lounge on their phones. The intent for this period is to not introduce students to new material, but to go over existing if necessary, give students time to ask questions, work on remediation, give students who need it one on one time with their teachers. So far, many students and teachers have not been utilizing this time effectively. Farris Saber, Junior, said, “I think it’s a waste of time…because we don’t do anything in it.” Some teachers are frustrated with the lack of complete class time and have used Patriot Time to introduce new material into the class. One of the reasons Patriot Time is popular with students is because they get to relax during that time. Gloria, Sophomore, said, “I think it’s really fun, it gives me time to enjoy myself and listen to music.”
While some members of the school may not be using Patriot Time effectively, the ELL department has. To summarize an interview with a couple of the ELL staff, they are completely pro-Patriot Time. They explained that they use this time to help their students go over the class material they may not understand properly and make sure every student in their classes understands what to do and how exactly to do it
“I see it as something that could work in theory, I’m not one way or another just yet,” said Ms. Melissa Ayala, ELL Teacher. Maybe Patriot Time will backfire, maybe it will succeed, we just need to watch it over the year and see how it all pans out.
