This school year, Benilde-St. Margaret’s has dealt with one of the most confusing schedules I’ve ever seen. Impacting all members of the BSM community, the schedule has changed each week, keeping everyone guessing what their week will look like. Before the year started, the school moved Mass to eight-period days, meaning students now need to attend all eight classes and Mass on the same day. This caused confusion among students, including myself; the eight-period schedule leaves only 30 minutes for class time. BSM’s constant schedule changes are confusing; they should be more consistent.

As a student going on her 5th year at BSM, I can’t imagine how confused new students must be. From the unexpected power outage on the first day to the eight-period days with Mass, I don’t recall a time when the schedules were this confusing. New students won’t understand what “normal” scheduling is when we’ve only had one regular scheduled week since the year started.

There are many teachers and staff around BSM who are very organized when it comes to their lesson plans, and these random schedule changes interrupt their classes. Teacher Erin Werneke is one of these organized teachers. She likes the block schedule, meaning students attend four classes one day and the other four the next, but would prefer eight period days stay on Friday instead of the occasional Wednesday. The occasional Wednesday eight-period days cause confusion and have, therefore, made her rearrange her class’s lesson plan. “I had a whole semester planned, and then I had to rearrange, not only for the power outage, which was crazy, but we couldn’t control that, but also for the rearrangement on the eighth period day, and that’s something we could have controlled,” Werneke said.

Teachers having mixed-up lesson plans impact students as well. If the teachers are leaving out some components of the lesson to fit the schedule, they may not realize how crucial that information is for students. Students who miss a class may not understand what they are learning. I know that when I’ve missed a day of class and a piece of information was never taught to me, it’s confusing to continue learning. This can happen when teachers need to rearrange their schedules and possibly leave out important information that would help students understand the material. I fully agree that eight-period days should be moved back to Friday. This will benefit the community and make the weekly schedule less confusing.