Alex Archambault ’14: The phone rings. Alex Pearson’s voice blares through the phone, another snow day. While many students are rejoicing for another day to sleep in, many teachers are dreading trying to fit yet another missed class into even less time.
With AP tests approaching and the end of the year looming, many teachers have begun to worry about completing the curriculum and rumors have begun to fly about teachers taking back drop blocks and encouraging students to come in on weekends. Ironically, I was supposed to interview Dr. Delvin Dinkins, Head of Upper School, during my AP Government drop block but could not because my teacher was concerned about keeping on schedule to finish all of the units and took back our drop. When I finally was able to contact Dinkins, he explained, “During the week of February 3rd, the department chairs and I began to brainstorm ideas to regain some instructional time. As we got back to normal operations, the chairs shared their own ideas as well as solicited the thoughts and feelings of members of their respective departments.”
One idea that almost everyone agreed upon was reclaiming drop blocks. As Dinkins noted, “In light of ongoing discussion and individual needs of teachers and classes, some faculty members had already begun reclaiming dropped blocks by the time a structure had been established and communicated.”
And it seems that Dinkins’ plan to get the Episcopal Academy Upper School back on track was beneficial for regular classes. As he stated, “Earlier this week, I tried to get a general sense from faculty of how we were doing with respect to our goal of recapturing instructional time. The feedback was encouraging. Many teachers felt that they are on target to complete the curriculum as designed. Others had made strategic curricular decisions to teach the most important material and reserve the ‘nice-to-do-but-not-quite-as-essential’ stuff for the end of the year, pending time.”
Despite the apparent initial success, many AP teachers still worry about finishing the material needed for the tests as well as have time to offer practice APs. This concern has led to discussions of how to find additional time outside of the time allotted during the school day for AP teachers to make sure their students are fully prepared. Dinkins relayed that many teachers agree a good option would be offering extra classes on Saturdays. “These sessions would be based on teacher availability and offered as a service to students and families. To date, a couple of AP teachers have said that they are on target with their curricular calendar. Others are working with colleagues and the department chair to make an informed decision about the necessity and desired impact of optional evening and Saturday meetings.” Dinkins also clarified with Scholium that even if teachers do plan for additional Saturday classes, they would be optional to students.
There seems to be mixed reviews from the AP teachers about this idea of offering classes on the weekends. Marc Eripret, Head of the Modern Language Department, echoed the concern about not having enough time for his AP French students to take a practice test yet he when he presented the idea of having a class on a Saturday to his class he described with distaste how many of the students were very opposed to the idea. “With eight snow days, I think, it became pretty obvious that we would need to find options to reclaim instructional time. As much as I love not commuting and as much as students love snow days, end of year exams will be here faster than we think and the amount of required content and knowledge won’t have changed.
The World Language Department decided to consult with the students and to ask them for feedback about the idea. I teach the AP French course, and I am not sure that I was even able to finish my question before being hit by loud ‘WHAT?’, ‘SATURDAYS? REALLY?’ while looking at five faces filled with incredulity and disbelief. The sixth one, agreed and we will work something out. It’s a shame because it would have been a great opportunity to practice a real three-hour AP exam. I will now have to double up what we do in class and take advantage of the reclaimed drop days.” Leslie Trimble, Head of the Science Department, seemed to believe that asking students to come in on the weekend would not be necessary. “I think science will use lab blocks to get through all our information and do a practice exam, although AP Bio may do a Saturday practice exam. Other departments don’t have this option so they are trying to squeeze in some more time during evenings and weekends. We all want everyone to do well on the AP exams in spite of eight snow days and two late openings!”
Despite how irksome it might be to come in on Saturday or give up a free it is important to remember that teachers are not reclaiming drops as a cruel and unusual punishment yet they’re trying to help their students perform their best. As Dr. Dinkins explained, “ It is clear that our teachers give their all to their work, unquestionably committed to their craft and to student learning and preparation.”