English teacher Brandi Kruse had to drastically change the way she teaches and manages her time this year. The new seven-period schedule has had a huge effect on her, as well as the other teachers here.

The difficulties teachers have faced coming into the year and transitioning can be hard on them. With 33 minutes less per class, educators have to change their teaching style and their method of instruction.

Kruse finds it difficult to adjust to the new class schedule. There are larger classes and less time, making it hard to get around to all the students when checking homework and explain what they are suppose to do in class.

According to Kruse, only having this short amount of time leaves no room for wild cards. Sometimes it takes her the whole period to make copies for her next class, and other days an occasional student will drop by needing help. Kruse has felt the stress of the shift in time, but she also has noted the benefit.

“Last year coming in the morning I had an hour before class started, but now I only have fifteen minutes. So it’s hard to help kids and have time to prepare before my first class,” Kruse said.  “On a positive note I am getting better at presenting one thing per class and give the students 50 minutes to do it. Then the next day we will be able to review it as a class.”

Different from English classes, math can benefit from either schedule. Math can be good and bad when it comes to the way the new schedule flows explains math teacher Alan Simpson. It is difficult to have a short amount of teaching time, while on the other hand, it is valuable to have math everyday because the repetition can aid in understanding the material better.

Although there are benefits in an everyday math class, the problem with learning on this everyday schedule is that going over problems from the previous night, taking notes to understand homework assignments, receiving frequent  tests and it can be challenging  to fit quizzes in the the small time slot allowed.

“What is difficult about the new schedule is I have to adjust my schedule and plan for this year and change my teaching style,” Simpson said. “It’s good though that students will get the math refreshed everyday and being able to drill things into their mind for the OAKS state test will be easier, but it doesn’t allow for much of group work or time to go deeper into the math problems.”

Chad Waples and his PE classes have depended on having that extra 30 minutes to do activities, and now he has had to split up and change his class schedule.

“Transitions are the hardest thing about the new schedule. Days we do tournaments, it’s difficult to finish multiple games in 50 minutes so we have to start again the next day and spend time figuring out who was on what team,”  Waples said. “Other days we learn new skills like dribbling in basketball if we don’t finish in time we need to take time to review dribbling the next day.”

Physical Education benefited from the block schedule because of the class length. It is time consuming to dress down, warm-up, run and participate in activities. Tournaments that normally used the entire class have to be split into two separate days. Waples added teams may have to be re-done with the number of absences from one day to the next.

Teachers can be struggling when it comes to the new schedule, but they are adapting like the rest of the student body.

While district administration made changes for the betterment of the school and its students, there are many different opinions among teachers here regarding whether all these changes are good for the whole.