New to our schedule this year is a thirty minute homeroom period, which takes place before first period. This was created to provide time for the students to work on homework, have meetings with the guidance counselors, Mrs. Vivo, or attend any club meetings. Each homeroom has two teachers assigned to them, one elective teacher, and one core subject teacher.
By adding a thirty minute homeroom to the day, the bell schedule has been altered, with the school day starting at 7:40 am instead of 7:45 am. As you can imagine this is an adjustment and is taking time getting used to. Art teacher Mr. Van Kirk says, “I’m almost adjusted, it really feels like there are ten periods now instead of nine, hopefully by the end of the nine weeks I’ll be fully adjusted.”
Many of us can agree it was something to get used to, but hopefully in the long run a homeroom will be able to be beneficial for all students.
Adding a thirty minute homeroom gives the students an opportunity to finish any homework they might have forgotten about or weren’t able to finish the night before. When asked if their students use their homeroom to their benefit Mr. Van Kirk says, “For the kids that are natural “go-getters” and productive during school definitely use it well, but others may see it as a waste of time.”
High school language arts teacher Ms. Mercure says, “Homeroom has benefited students as it’s a nice start to their day. Homeroom provides time for students to get organized and complete work. It also provides students time for necessary meetings, meeting with teachers for extra help, and making up quizzes or tests that they may have missed due to absences.” She also says, “I see students using their homeroom to their advantage. I feel they are productive and often meet with teachers, attend meetings, and complete homework.”
Some kids believe that this has been very beneficial. Freshman, Olivia Clement says, “ I use my homeroom to do any leftover homework I have or study for a test I might have that day.”
Different grade levels fluctuate how much homework a student may have, so this makes sense on why a freshman may have more work to do in her homeroom compared to an upperclassman who may run out of things to work on. One of the best outcomes to having a homeroom however, is being able to attend whatever meetings you may have.
In the past, if a student had a club meeting he or she would have to either come to school early or stay after school in order to attend them. This wasn’t always the most practical thing because a lot of students have extracurricular activities and weren’t able to attend the after school meetings. Students often find it hard to just get up early for school, let alone get up earlier to attend a meeting.
Senior Elizabeth Rossi says, “I would rather have meetings during homeroom because getting out of bed earlier for meetings was always a struggle for me, so it’s easier on all of us when we are already in the building.” With Elizabeth being an open-enrollment student and having to drive far every morning this makes not only her life easier, but several other kids who don’t live in Lowellville. Some students also rely on our buses to get to school and wouldn’t have been able to attend early school meetings anyway, having them during homeroom eliminates these problems completely.
Olivia Clement says, “ I would rather have meetings in the homeroom because it gives everyone a chance to be there and we would have better attendance in meetings.” This is very true as in the past we always had to schedule meetings around the students and having meetings during school fixes that problem.
Freshman Nicholas Scott agrees. “I like homeroom because I can get my assignments done. Sometimes I wish it was longer because I don’t always have time to work on everything.” He also likes homeroom because he can attend meetings for the clubs and activities he is involved in.
Not only does a homeroom allow students to have their meetings but also for staff and administration. Since there are two teachers assigned to each homeroom the core subject teachers have their meetings on separate days than the specials teachers so there is a monitor in the classroom at all times.
When asking Miss Carlos whether she preferred the in-service day meetings or homeroom meetings, she responds, “I prefer the homeroom meetings because I’m a people person and I feel that with these meetings I get to connect with my colleagues and collaborate on their ideas that will ultimately benefit the school.”
Ms. Mercure responds similarly by saying, “I like having time to collaborate with my colleagues. Sometimes the meetings fly by, and I may prefer longer meeting times less often.”
Having every teacher in a room at once definitely gives them a space to compare and contrast each other’s ideas and work together in a more efficient way.
Mr. Van Kirk says, “I prefer the way we are doing them now, however I think they may be too often. If we did them bi-weekly I think that could be more effective because having them twice a week makes us run out of things to talk about.”
All in all, having a homeroom will take some getting used to, but it’s a great step in the right direction for students and staff and will prove to be even more useful the more we have it. Whether that’s giving the students an extra “studyhall” or providing both teachers and students with an easier way to attend and host meetings.
