Addison Bruno

In the last quarter of the 22-23 school year, Buena announced they would be following in Ventura’s footsteps and taking up the block schedule in hopes to better our learning. Screams could be heard from most of the students and the seniors laughed at the misery they wouldn’t have to endure. As the bell chimed for the first day of school this year, we geared ourselves for the longest one-hundred minutes of our lives. Little did I know, block schedule has been the most beneficial thing to the school year. 

Although seeing all of my teachers every day was a real treat, the fifty minutes spent with them in class wasn’t exactly the most effective amount of time. With just five minutes to settle down the class ,We balanced six classes of rushed, tight-packed information. Days started feeling like we were developing a short attention span, but the class enjoyed the relaxed periods for the most part. 

The switch to hundred-minute periods was like jumping into icy water. The short attention span the fifty-minute periods created didn’t help the long first day of school, but, surprisingly, my first period covered three days of lessons I would have not remembered. Additionally, the task and the homework was finished in the same period, with the direct help from my teacher. 

Anything that I could have missed was due in two days instead of the next morning. It was perfect for my procrastinator tendencies. 

The lucky students with no 6th period started their practices at 12:45 two days a week, letting them get home at a more reasonable hour and enjoy their lives without the homework they would’ve had to do.

Not only was this new schedule effective for students, teachers benefited greatly too. For electives such as culinary, food labs could be made, baked, eaten, and cleaned with time to spare by the end of the period. Paintings would be finished and set to dry, all pottery could make it into the kiln at the same time. 

According to Dartmouth Digital Commons, block schedule has increased the average SAT score by 14 percent. It has proved to result in lower workloads for both students and teachers, as now we spend more time studying fewer subjects every day instead of less time studying five or more subjects. 

With the first semester of block schedule coming to a close and finals approaching rapidly, the new schedule is put to the test whether it is really effective or not based on this year’s scores. Although at first this change felt like the end of the world, it proved to broaden the horizons of most students at Buena high school.