Tuesday, September 5, 2017
The Student Newspaper of Jones College Preparatory High School
Home sweet homeroom
Taking a byte out of space
Friday Academic Labs to adopt advisory-like model aimed at increasing productivity ORLA LEVENS ‘18 Editor-in-Chief Instead of waiting eagerly at the main doors for early release on B-day Fridays, Jones students will remain contained in individual classrooms until the 2:15 p.m. dismissal time. The administration has adopted a policy which designates an AcLab room for the entirety of the shortened period instead of allowing students to freely roam the school. The policy was adopted to increase productivity among the student body and communications between students and staff. “We wanted to create something where, every couple of weeks, students go to an AcLab room and we can conduct some school business,” said principal P. Joseph Powers. “It will give us a chance to do everything from distribute materials, to talk to students regarding their grade situations [and] communications of all sorts. We will probably push out some information to the teachers to share. It’s going to be something where we can use the time effectively as opposed to everyone standing around waiting until 2:15.” Teachers supervising these AcLabs are able to use the time to connect with students and increase social-emotional awareness. “We thought of the Friday AcLab time as a time to sit down with a group of students and give them a space where they don’t [necessarily] have to talk about grades and assignments and test scores,” said Math teacher Anna Barnett, a proponent of the policy change. “It can be about school, which
is usually on the forefront of everyone’s minds, but people have a lot going on.” To accomplish this, some teachers may rely on planned activities with their assigned group. Barnett, for example, plans to interact with her students using what she calls a ‘good thing, bad thing’ model. “What I like about that activity is that it allows [you to] control over how much you share,” said Barnett. “You can share as little as [you want]
or also something deep and personal because you have gotten comfortable with the group of students.” In addition to advancing social-emotional curriculum, the policy was created to avoid people simply waiting around in the lobby. “We would have 450 or 500 people waiting in the lobby for the bell to dismiss at 2:15,” said Powers. However, students are unsure if the policy will actually increase their willingness to work. “It’s a B-day Friday, and everyone’s excited about the weekend,” said Riley Cranston
Volume 3, Issue 1
‘18. “Most [students] are mentally drained at the end of the week, and just want to chill [anyways].” If students do wish to speak to other teachers during this assigned period, it is unlikely that they will be able to do so. However, Powers affirms that there are other options. “Because of the short time period, [students will] probably not [be able to see other teachers]. But again, that’s why we’ve got the other [long] AcLab periods two times a week,” said Powers. “Teachers are still available between class periods [and] after dismissal.” Some students who have experienced the previous Friday AcLab model expressed frustration with the new model, mostly as they will have less time to ask their teachers any questions they have have. “If I need to talk to a teacher before the weekend about a paper or project, I tend to do it [during Friday AcLabs], so it’s going to be annoying,” said Cranston. While these AcLab groups will be formed with one teacher and around 30 students from one grade, Barnett hopes that in the future, they will be composed of students across all grade levels. “Eventually, we may want students to connect from all grade levels, [but] it is just a logistical challenge currently,” said Barnett. “We see a need for students to participate in these groups and this is a baby step towards meeting the need.” Graphic by Deklin Versace ‘18
Concerns over lack of computer lab may be premature DEKLIN VERSACE ‘18 School Staff
Over the past few years, the Jones administration has been enthusiastically pushing a Computer Science program to the school’s offered courses. Unlike previous classes, incoming freshmen will be required to take at least one Computer Science class within their time at Jones to graduate. With new computer labs and more Chromebooks being spread through different departments, it seems like the administration is making its best effort to improve the Computer Science program. Despite the amount of resources being set aside for Computer Science, there just aren’t enough interested students to make any use out of them. “We purchased two additional Chromebook carts for the Social Science department and two for the English department in the thoughts that the majority of our [computer] labs would be in full use,” said technology coordinator JoAnne Troesch. “As it turns out, the interest in Computer Science classes wasn’t as high as anticipated.” There were thoughts that days of the age-old practice of heading to a computer lab for class were numbered because of the once-projected Computer Science boom. “Say you’re in an English class, you go to a lab [for] a research day. It can [now] be done on the chromebooks in the classroom,” explained Principal P. Joseph Powers. The change now seems unnecessary, though, as the number of students taking Computer Science this year hasn’t especially increased, meaning Jones purchased four full sets of Chromebook laptops that won’t see as much use as anticipated. One advantage to the increased amount of computers doesn’t affect the Computer Science department is a new computer lab stocked with Apple computers used for the popular Digital Imaging courses. “When Digital Imaging classes were offered, they filled up immediately. We didn’t have enough seats for the numbers of students who wanted to take the class,” said Troesch. “When I learned that we were turning away 90 to 100 students per year from Digital Imaging, it just seemed obvious that we needed to open another lab.” The new Mac-lab guarantees much needed space for the many Jones students who want to take these classes.
School of cards: counselors reshuffle the deck New counseling system aims to support students throughout entire high school experience JONATHAN DUGARD ‘18 School Editor Shifting from “specialists to generalists,” the counseling department is adopting a new model this year where a student will have the same counselor for their entire Jones experience. It is different from the previous setup where students worked with one counselor their freshman and sophomore year, and transitioned to a different counselor for their junior and senior year. Counselors will now attempt to build relationships with their students throughout high school. “You have a better chance of getting to know your student, getting to know their strengths and weaknesses, and also being able to see them grow,” said LaToya Hudson-Spells, the department co-chair and counselor of students with last names D-G. “It’s good for families, for parents to be able to have that relationship with that person for the full four years. It allows [you] to really kind of become an expert in all grade levels versus having college stuff and having personal things.” While some students express discomfort with the system, the counselors look forward to the new system. “I’m looking forward to this
new model so that I can meet my freshmen, and then still work with them as they pursue their post-high school plans,” said Hope Stimac, counselor for students with last names H-K. “I’m excited that I can now build relationships that will last for all of high school.” A potential glitch with the new system is some seniors are left with new counselors at the beginning of their most stressful year. The counselors play an essential role in the student’s college admission process as they write a letter of recommendation for each of their students that is intended to include personal details about the students. Many juniors constantly work toward building a relationship with their counselor in return for a more personal, genuine letter of recommendation. “I know as a senior it can be very stressful having a new counselor, but some of the seniors are going to be working with their previous freshman/sophomore counselor,” said Hudson-Spells. Despite this, the counselors remain optimistic for the upcoming year. “Counseling is in a transitional year,” said Stimac. “It’s going to be a huge learning experience for all of us.”
Photo by Jonathan Dugard ‘18
A TO Z Counselor Erica White (front) explains the new counseling system to faculty last week, with fellow counselors (L-R) Vijaya Schnatterback, Brian Coleman, Hope Stimac, LaToya Hudson-Spells, and Sajida Syed. Each counselor takes an alpha slice of the student population as part of their caseload. Syed works with students last names A-C, Hudson-Spells with last names D-G, Stimac with last names H-K, Coleman with last names L-O, Schnatterbeck with last names P-S, and White with last names T-Z. Katherine Williams ‘20 contributed to this article.