Milton Area High School’s move to a period schedule is well underway.
The process began when Superintendent Dr. John Bickhart decided to switch to a period schedule for a more consistent schedule, according to a March 14 Panther Press article.
“The best thing so far that I’ve seen is when I walk into classrooms, a lot of our class sizes are decreased,” said High School Principal Mr. Michael Bergey. Some electives, like baking and pastry arts, do have larger classes because there is a limited number of classes, he added.
Mr. Bergey explained that since the periods are short, there is less downtime in classes for students, so there is a lot more student engagement with this schedule.
“Right now, there aren’t any complaints or bad things about the schedule that haven’t been anticipated,” Mr. Bergey said. One struggle he said he did anticipate is the adjustment to the new schedule. There wasn’t as much of a heavy workload with four 82 minute classes as there is now with the eight period schedule, he added.
From a teaching perspective, this schedule is also an adjustment, Mr. Bergey said. Teachers have to take their content and expand it to span the whole school year, which is an adjustment for them as well, he added.
This year, Pride was moved to the morning and is currently three days of the week. According to Mr. Bergey, this was done to maximize the time for students to get help and go to club meetings. Now from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., students have an hour to get help from their teachers, he added.
“What I’ve heard at this point right now, kids are definitely having more homework than they’ve had in the past,” Mr. Bergey said. With double the number of daily classes, there will be work that students will have to take home and finish, he added.
The school’s two half credit courses, CAPS and physical education, have stayed a half credit and will both only last half the year, he said. CTE courses have not been affected by the new schedule, according to Mr. Bergey.
“I think the schedule is better for people to be able to pay attention for 40 minutes as opposed to an hour and 30,” Chemistry Teacher Mr. Jonathan Bixler said. He added that he’s also seen a decline in homework completion and grade averages because kids have eight classes.
“It’s very difficult to keep up with everything; it’s very challenging. The day goes by very fast, and I feel like I’m finally finding my stride,” said Business Teacher Ms. Jamie Emery-Seibert.
“Students and teachers both had a study hall on their schedule, so there was built in time each day to complete classwork. That is one of the main differences that I see in the period schedule between now and when we had it before,” she added. There has also been more student engagement during the classes since they are shorter, she said.
