Five ideas about our current schedule

Amara Fason

The new “norm” includes floor signs indicating where people should stand.

The challenge that most affects high school teachers and students is how do you safely re-open while still offering a quality education. That is what a nearly 200-member committee tackled this past spring and summer in formulating plans to safely re-open Wayne Township schools.

Here are five ideas to consider as we move forward.

• More communication with teachers during at-home days.

While acknowledging this will be difficult to pull off, the feeling of the Spotlight staff is there is too much time away from school, which leads to poor communication between teachers and students. Perhaps making mandatory zoom meetings on Friday’s with each class could be a compromise.

• Students need to become more self-motivated.

This one is on us, fellow students. This is a difficult time for us all, but we need to step up and make sure we are getting the work done while at home. School is a place where we can learn to better ourselves in life, so we need to realize that we are not getting a five-day weekend. Despite only being at school two days a week, we need to realize this is still a five days a week arrangement and work accordingly.

• Teachers continue to work hard but acknowledge what faces us at home.

Unless you are a teacher, it is hard to appreciate the amount of extra work and stress this schedule puts on their shoulders. We appreciate the extra effort they are putting in, but we want them to appreciate the extra effort we students put in as well. Some of us have siblings at home we either watch or share home computer space with; some of us have to work extra hours; some of us have life issues that get in the way at home — this schedule is not easy for any of us. Teachers showing compassion goes a long way..

• Bring clubs and school activities back.

The one constant mentioned when we polled our staff about the new schedule was the absence of normal school activities, like choir concerts, club meetings, pep rallies, spirit days and ways to just be a high school kid. Maybe smaller pep rallies in the gym where the students can social distance would be something to consider. We miss that chance to have a homecoming dance this week. And students, participate in the spirit days that are planned. We can’t complain about not having the “extras” and then not participate when some get scheduled. Dress up this week for the planned spirit days — post your at-home pictures on the school social media pages. .

• We like the Friday’s.

This is a plea for the future. When this is done and Covid-19 is behind us, we urge the school board to consider a four day a week school year. We have heard teachers enjoy having student-less Friday’s as a way to catch up on grading and plan ahead, and we students also like having Friday off as well. We aren’t big fans of the zoom Impact meetings, and we’d rather see in-person Impact maybe one day a week when we return to normal, but please consider keeping Friday’s the way they currently are.