Finals Week!
Finals week starts the 17th of January after the three day weekend. The schedule will be different than previous years. In years past, half days took place during finals week. However, this year, there will be full days. What students should also take note, is that students should bring their materials for all testing days because it will still be a normal school day.
“The Department of Public Instruction requires all schools to have a certain amount instructional instructional minutes for every year. High schools tend to have a larger amount of early releases which leads to a struggle to meet the requirement”, said Kari Morey when asked about why this schedule change is made.
On Tuesday the 17th, blocks 1A and 3A will be finals, while the other A-day blocks will be normal classes. All classes will still be in the same order and have a normal schedule of 90 minute classes, with the exception of Friday.
“I think providing a full day for students will allow them a greater opportunity to study and review for their exams. I think in the past, some students may not have used the half days to their advantage and studied as much as they could have.”, said Mr. Venne.
Wednesday exams will be blocks 2B and 4B, and on Thursday eamxs 2A and 4A will take place with 1A and 3A. On Friday the 20th, there will be an early release and exams 1B and 3B will take place.
“There are pros and cons to having students all day. One con is the ability to grade exams and prepare for the start of a second semester. On the plus side, I am able to spend more quality time with my students getting them ready for their exams.”, said Mr. Venne
The schedule for Friday will be 1B, 2B, 4B, 3B, and lunch periods will be last. Since there will be 1B and 3B finals Friday those periods will be 80 minutes, the remaining periods will be about 50 minutes each.
What’s important for students to take note of is that it is a B day friday so they will still have their same B-Day lunch third block. When 3-1 lunch ends they will go to their Block three class which will be 80 minutes. 3-2 lunch will have part of their class, have lunch and then they will go back to their block 3 take the rest of their finals. 3-3 lunch will take their final and then go to lunch.
While it may seem odd to have a final be before and after lunch it was a decision that was not taken lightly by the department chairs. They decided that the best outcome of the schedule would be this way to align with what the school district requested finals be like.
