February 4th marked the first synchronous day of the new bell schedule. As a student staying virtual, the shift from the old schedule to the new one probably wasn’t as dramatic as it was for hybrid students. Nonetheless, I still have a lot to say about the changes.

There were many great aspects of the new bell schedule. To start off, I really enjoyed the extra two hours of free time that we got from the new hybrid schedule. Having school end at 1:00 instead of 3:00 allowed me to relax more and be more productive. Another thing that I appreciated was there being only one advisory check-in at 1:45. It was great not having to wake up at 8:00 AM on Wednesdays just to check in for “Advisory” and instead, being able to sleep in until the afternoon. I was also expecting a more awkward experience for the teachers teaching since they’d have to interact with both the virtual students and the ones at school. However, I didn’t really see a change in their style of teaching; everything felt basically the same as it did during the fully virtual schedule. 

The amount of classwork and homework remained the same for me, except I saw a change in how I study. With the previous schedule, I was always procrastinating and doing the work last minute while not completing it to the best of my ability; I was just trying to turn my work in before the clock got to 11:59. Although there are only two additional hours in the new schedule, I found myself being much more productive and turning my work in much earlier than I previously did. 

Something I wasn’t a fan of was the cut length of breaks in between each class. Even though each class is still almost eighty minutes, the break between each class is only five minutes, excluding the fifteen-minute “Wellness Break” between 3rd and 4th period. In the previous schedule, we got about a fifteen-minute break between each period and I miss that amount of time we got, but I guess that time-cut is what makes school only four hours instead of six. Coming from someone who doesn’t like to eat a big breakfast and gets hungry really quickly, it was a challenge adjusting to the late 1:00 lunch. 

Overall, I think this new hybrid schedule is a perfect example of taking the good with the bad. School lasts two hours less only because there are much shorter breaks in between and a very late lunch. Although it was a challenge for me to get used to the schedule, I honestly like that everything is more condensed and that I have more free time. I’d even say I prefer this schedule over the old one!