The new start and end times have officially been implemented at Conifer High School, moving the day to start at 8:30 and end at 3:45, and instead of bringing the old schedule forward, slight changes have been made. The most notable is the lack of a typical seminar or advisement period.
“There’s no more seminar. For lots of reasons, seminar is ineffective and it’s not exactly what we wanted out of it. And so, for years we’ve talked about modifying or trying to improve the effectiveness of seminar,” CHS Principal Gregory Manier said.
Two new periods have taken seminar’s place, Lobo Lab, a 55-minute responsive scheduling period following first period, and Loop, a 35-minute period at the end of the day.
The Lab approach is designed to direct students to areas of interest and need, allowing both teachers and students to make these decisions. During Lab, students will be allowed to reserve times in different teachers’ classes, which teachers will set to be unique for each Green Day.
While students will be making selections, teachers will also be able to reserve students, setting their lab for that particular day. If a student does not make a choice and is unrequested by a teacher then that student will be assigned to a lab by the school.
“Similar to last year we had seminar, right? And it was kind of more free flowing, you could just go to two places or three places in each class. We wanted to make sure that teachers can help students that need help,” Assistant Principal Becky Paschke said.
However, a major difference between Lab and seminar is the mobility of students. Under the new system, students will only be able to go to one Lab each day. This system was designed to prevent students from moving between many classes and ensure that teachers were provided opportunities to support their students’ needs.
“I think it’ll help make sure that people are staying on focus and they’re using their time wisely,” Paschke said.
Lab periods will be open for students to attend teachers’ study halls, test preps, mini-classes, or club meetings. Club members will now be able to sign up for their meetings online, setting aside that protected time for their club activities.
While originally these reservations were going to last for the entire week of Green Days, Conifer administrators have decided to implement a system where students can choose a different lab for every day of the week. Teachers and students will be making these selections unique to each Green Day, reserving these periods a day or two in advance.
“It’s going to be a learning curve at first but we thought what better than to just have people doing it [selection]. If you do it just once a week then you may forget the process, but if you do it every other day then it just becomes part of your routine,” Paschke said.
The second part of the new schedule, Loop, is a new period where students are assigned a teacher and cohort in their freshman year and stay with that same group until their time ends at Conifer High School.
“It’s like this way to build relationships with kids, let them have you as a trusted adult, you know, another resource in the building,” Manier said.
During this time students will receive social-emotional instruction, and digital-citizenship lessons, among other things. This time will also be used for athletic dismissals on game days, however this does not apply to regular practices as they will now start before or after the regular school day.
“Now at least we’ve got that buffer in there,” Athletic Secretary Patricia Gacnik said. “If you have to leave early for games, you won’t miss as much class time.”
While students are not allowed to move between classes during this time they will still be able to use the short period as a study hall if needed. These periods are also designed to give students time to plan out what Lab they want to attend on the next Green Day.
“It’s going to feel a little rigid, like my English teacher is making me come versus I’m choosing to go,” Manier said. “I hope people realize that sometimes when I’m sixteen I don’t make the best choice when it comes to where I should spend my time…and we’ve kind of allowed it and so it’s all to support students.”
