Once a week, students will attend all eight classes in shortened periods after Grady eliminated the Wednesday homeroom advisement period this year.

In contrast with the traditional A and B day block schedule with four classes a day, the new C day-schedule on Wednesdays, allows students to attend all eight class periods. The usual 88-minute periods are adjusted to 42-minute periods.

 The administration devised the new schedule to allow teachers to see students more often. Under the previous schedule, teachers saw each class three times a week one week and two times the following week, or vice versa. Now students attend A classes Mondays and Thursdays and B classes Tuesdays and Fridays and every class on Wednesday.

“I’ve always been a big believer in the more times a teacher can interact with kids, the better,” Dr. Bockman said. “Even if it is those 42 minutes.”

AP U.S. History teacher Lee Pope supports the revised C day schedule. 

“I think that it gives us time as teachers and students to kind of go back and figure it out, to figure out those other two classes,” Pope said.

For students looking to switch up their learning patterns for a day a week, C days can offer a unique solution.

“I really kind of look at all the different kinds of kids we have here, and more just learning styles,” Dr. Bockman said. “For some students, a short period is good.”

Along with the arrival of the C day came the departure of a designated period for Social and Emotional Learning during homeroom advisement, formerly held on Wednesdays. Teachers are now encouraged to continue SEL with daily exercises in their classes.

“I thought that advisement … the structure of it and the content, had lost its original purpose,” Dr. Bockman said. “Lessons weren’t working, so I felt that we could do SEL in a more organic way.”

When the new schedule was proposed, the C day was set for either Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. Pope believes that Friday would have been the best choice.

“It would have been nice if it were maybe a Friday, but it also gives us a chance to do a check-in mid-week, which is going to again take an adjustment,” Pope said.

The C day schedule was not met without critics. Junior Amelia Green is not a fan of the shortened classes.

“Mentally, I have to adjust myself to eight classes,” Greene said. “I think of how taxing it is for me to be able to adjust, and I have to do [twice] the amount of homework because I am seeing the classes directly after, the next day. It’s just too complicated.” 

Having all eight classes in one day can be exhausting for students. With the A day and B day schedule, students had a day in between classes, giving them more time to complete schoolwork for each class.

“I think it’s a better schedule,” Dr. Bockman said. “Teachers adjust. Kids adjust. It’s just different.”