Written by :
With the start of the new school year, a minor shift in schedule has been observed amongst Junior High School students. From having different synchronous and asynchronous schedules that began at 8AM and ended at 5PM, the department has now shifted to AM and PM classes.
A look behind the new schedule
After listening to the students' suggestions during a consultation with them, Sir Ulysses Dimatulac, Junior High School Vice Principal, stated that they decided to rearrange the schedule.
A new schedule can have both positive and negative effects on students and teachers. Because synchronous and asynchronous classes are held separately, Dimatulac claims that it allows students to focus more. Many students, however, have questioned why Grades 7-10 cannot share the same schedule.
"We considered combining four levels into one schedule, but managing our Zoom premium accounts will make it difficult for us to monitor effectively, which will make it difficult for teachers who teach at different levels," he said.
AM classes: Challenging but amenable
With the new schedule being implemented for the current school year, students had to adjust to the new schedule in order to attend classes and continue to learn. Students from grades 7 and 8 have AM classes, which begin at 7:30-11:30 a.m. for synchronous classes and 12:30-3:30 p.m. for asynchronous classes.
“It felt really tough and really cool for me since it’s not the usual things that we do in school before. But, it’s fun to try new things, and adjusting to it wasn’t too hard,” Auby Feusca, a Freshman from section E shared.
Thea Busa of 8A also expressed her thoughts on this new schedule. "This new setup made me feel mysterious since I am not that comfortable learning online. But since I know that this pandemic is still happening, I know that it's still not safe to go to school."
Knowing that a new setup requires students to change their old habits and routines, Busa also added, “it was truly difficult for me to alter my plan since I still didn't know how to oversee my time and how to isolate my thoughts about my individual life. But I slowly adjusted to Online Separate Learning and I, later on, knew how to oversee my time to avoid burnout."
PM classes: Convenient and practical
There are many reasons why PM classes can be convenient for students especially in this time of the pandemic. For Grades 9 and 10, they have their PM classes in which their synchronous classes start at 12:30- 4 pm, while their asynchronous classes happen during the morning, 7:30-11:30 am.
Caeljan Cristobal of Grade 9B initially thought that the new schedule was confusing, but with the new set-up being divided into asynchronous and synchronous sessions, he saw the convenience of Online Distance Learning in SSI.
“...we have more time to finish our activities with the remaining time that we have on these asynchronous classes. Another is that we don't have to worry about the assembly time. Lastly, with ODL, our deadlines are extended until 11:59 p.m. on the day of the deadline. For me, it is a bit hard for me to adjust to the new setup since it is a big change from having different time schedules last year. But, after experiencing it for a while, I surprisingly have adjusted to it,” he said.
“I think that this new setup helped me prove that I can deal with any challenges. Well, I didn’t really have a hard time in terms of adjusting since what I see as an advantage of this setup is that we get to wake up without thinking that we have a morning class except for some days. I am also glad that this setup helped me improve my time management which is right now, very important,” 10A's Georgio Cabarloc shared.
Overall, each set-up has its own set of advantages and disadvantages for each of us. However, the ability of students to adapt to a flexible schedule proves that whatever difficulties this new set-up may present, we, as a school community, will be able to overcome them if we work together.
