Camila Jackson – Office Hours

Office hours are essential to succeed in one’s academic life. For one, office hours are available 3 days a week for 45 minutes. This gives you enough time to meet with any teacher to discuss recent class content that you may be having trouble understanding or even to go deeper into the subject.

They can be used to review any test material or to even just ask questions. You can learn your teachers’ expectations and can have 1 on 1 time with each one. The teacher will focus on what you have to say and address your concerns about the material since the whole class isn’t there. Thankfully office hours are optional, so you get to sleep for a little longer when you don’t go, but it is always there as a helping hand when you do have things you need to do with a teacher.

I wasn’t a student when flex was offered, but office hours also seem safer. During the flex periods, there was no system to keep track of where students were. They were unsupervised and must have made the school very chaotic. Flex was used as a time to also meet with any clubs you were a part of. However, since there was very little difficulty showing up to a meeting, students weren’t as engaged as they should have been. This period was taken advantage of by students as a time to mess around, not focusing on schoolwork that they should’ve been working on and taking part in activities that really shouldn’t have happened. Students were given a little too much freedom during flex, resulting in people getting in trouble and teachers having to be strict and having to add many rules, but during office hours, you can do whatever you want since school hasn’t technically started yet. You can talk to friends in the cafeteria, meet with teachers, get some work done, or just have some time to yourself before school starts.

Office hours have some flaws, a new concept always will, but it is better then flex, and should be here to stay!

Erin Emmick – Flex

When I think of the good ol’ days, I think of flex. Time during each school day where I could meet with teachers, get some work done, talk with my friends, or just decompress. Having time built into the school day that was just my own allowed for me to feel more comfortable and in control of my day. I was able to get so much done and attain a better understanding of my academic material.

Being able to immediately begin work, study, or talk to a teacher about a specific class the day of or the day after learning a new topic allowed for me to better understand the material. Instead of forgetting everything that was thrown at me during my class period, I was able to carry the information over into a period where I could apply it or receive more help on the subject. Flex let me learn the material, rather than memorize and regurgitate it because I had gone too long without applying my knowledge for it to be understood. 

On days where I had been sick, flex was perfect for me to catch up on my missing assignments or ask my teachers what I missed, and have them go over class work with me. Now that we only have office hours, my time is limited for me to find out what I missed, and if I was sick on a Wednesday, I would have to wait until Friday morning to meet with my teachers to go over it. Flex offered so much more flexibility when it came to getting immediate aid in a class, rather than the staggered days of office hours.

Office hours are also earlier in the morning, whereas flex was built into the day. Granted, we would have started school earlier, but a mandatory school start time versus an optional office hours start time have very different motivations. Flex was a perfect break in the day, especially on days where I didn’t have my resource. I was never behind on work or classes, and I was able to get the help I needed right away. I don’t think I’d say I miss freshman year, but I definitely do miss flex.