Students at Bethel Park High School are enrolled in a collection of science classes. Chemistry, biology, and physics are all science classes that involve double lab periods at least once a week.
Split with lab periods, students are enrolled in study hall one semester and gym the other semester. In the past, after in-service or snow days, students would return to their normal schedule on that given day.
However, this year, the high school is introducing a new way of organizing lab and gym periods.
Dr. J said, “In the old system, if we missed two Mondays in a row and our lab was on Monday then we’d miss a lab for three weeks. So in this system, bookend days are often missed. Our physical education programs for ninth and tenth grade alternate between activity and skills. If I miss two weeks of the same activity–that’s just another example.”
The new system organizes the normal Monday thru Friday schedule into something called Days 1-5. The Days 1-5 schedule is special. Students won’t miss critical lab periods, gym activities, and study halls.
“Our science labs are really great. You get a concentrated time where you can actually do experimentation,” Dr. J said. “Our science labs are a double period; when you have a double period like that, it’s an important time. We should try to balance that, so all students can have the same amount of time in that lab experience.”
In the traditional system, students frequently missed lab experiences after coming back from in-service days and snow days. Now, upon returning from these days, lab periods won’t be missed.
Dr. J said, “Somewhere along the way we’re going to miss days due to an in-service or due to the calendar. But, that’s where that steady rotation will come in as a positive.”
Restarting each nine weeks may become a problem. Chaos may emerge, because there will be some confusion as to what day it is. But, the administrators have a plan.
“The plan is that when we restart each nine weeks we will begin the days over again. So we can align the ‘day’ with the actual day of the week,” Dr. J said.
Essentially, Dr. J highlighted that the new system is not that hard to follow. If you come back from an in-service day on a Tuesday, then you’ll just follow a Monday system. In layman’s terms, the normal Tuesday day would be called “Day 1.”
As a result, you would follow a Day 1 schedule.
Some people won’t be affected by this change at all.
Dr. J said, “For most students, the one, two, three, four, five day will not change their lives at all. If you don’t have a lab and if you are a junior or senior and do not have an alternating schedule in phys ed, then it’s not going to impact you. All you have to know is if you have lab on Wednesdays and we’re on Day 3, then that’s when you’re going to have your lab.”
In addition to the new Days 1-5 schedule, a forty minute homeroom will occur on every other Day 3.
Dr. J said, “The forty minute homeroom takes three minutes off every period. What this will give us is an opportunity to not interrupt the classes as much as we would be interrupting if we didn’t have a forty minute homeroom. It’s a give and take. Take three minutes off and get back a concentrated homeroom of forty minutes. For example, students can make exams up, students can get tutoring, and students can get caught up on homework.”
This chunk of time will give homeroom teachers a chance to discuss current issues throughout the school.
“We are also going to be doing a couple programs within. One being making our culture respectable where everyone gets along. This will be our theme this year. We have a school where students really do get along and interact very well. But, it’s all about getting better,” Dr. J said.
The theme Dr. J is referring to is an interactive program where students discuss the negative impacts of bullying.
This Days 1-5 concept was inherited from Mt. Lebanon High School when Dr. J was principal there. Mt. Lebanon was so accustomed to this concept. “It was ingrained in their culture at the high school,” Dr. J said.
The concept worked and he believes it’ll be just as effective, if not more at BPHS.
