Monday through Friday, students are forced to wake up before dawn in order to beat the late bell and be in their desks by 8 a.m. However, students taking online classes no longer partake in this race against time every morning.
Starting this school year, Northwood has created a new system regarding online classes. Career and College Advisor, April Hammonds, explained that students must have an 80 or above in their online class to be able to not attend their online class if their class is first or fourth period.
“The online classes, especially for Central Carolina Community College (CCCC) are becoming more popular,” Hammonds said. “A lot of students are taking advantage of being able to get college credit that will transfer over, basically just to lessen their load in college. The stipulation however, in order to leave campus, kids do have to have a grade of an 80 or above. So it is a nice incentive for students to not have to be here first or fourth, kind of like having late arrival or early release, but still kind of getting that course credit in there.”
Senior Salem Williams has online class during fourth period. Williams thinks that she will be able to complete her work at home, but not as effectively as when she is in the classroom.
“I think I would be able to complete it [online work] at home, but I think I would probably get it done more efficiently if I was in class,” Williams said. “I would be able to focus more; the hour and a half that we have in fourth period gives me time to just do that work and at home I would be doing that with all my other homework as well.”
Hammonds said that this new system will be able to teach kids time management and how to be responsible with your work.
“I definitely think that it is going to teach some of the [students] time management, how to work on your work without having a set time in your schedule,” Hammonds said. “More than likely, if they’re not coming to first period, they’re not going to wake up the same time to do their school work. They’re going to work on it at some other time throughout the day. But it does give them a feel of how to be responsible and kind of have that free time and not that structured schedule that you’re used to.”
Senior Hunter Queen is in fourth period for his online class. While he enjoys the new system, he does feel like it would be easy to get distracted at home.
“I don’t know, I haven’t tried to go home and do it [take online class] yet,” Queen said. “It would probably be harder to do at home because you get distracted.”
Hammonds discusses the difficulty of this new system on students and how this would be an adjustment for most students.
“It is an adjustment, not having a teacher in front of you, reminding you when you have work due,” Hammonds said. “Students may get in the habit of having ‘Oh gosh! I completely forgot that I had this class.’ Of course we’re going to be checking grades every two weeks. So once a student drops below an 80, they are going to be required to come back.”
Because senior Sarah Yunker has online class during third period, she is unable to leave school. However, she thinks the success is in the hands of the student.
“I wouldn’t say that the new system is unfair,” Yunker said. “I just really think it comes down to the fact that you’re in college classes and you have to make your own choices about if you want to be successful or not.”
– Hannah Gail Shepherd
