TC Implements Another New Model for ‘Homeroom’
Lauren Larsen
Titan Time. Seminar. Advisory. Each year, the school has revised the schedule at the King Street Campus to allow time for students to catch up on work, learn important information through videos, and speak with counselors. Although the root purpose of this daily period of time has remained the same, the means of doing so has certainly changed.
This year, the administration has made a 27 minute block of time for students to meet in a designated classroom. They are grouped with other students who are in the same Academy and have the same counselor. That way, when counselors have important updates, they will easily be able to reach out to the students they advise.
“It’s great that the students are all together by counselor. One, it allows for us to be able to introduce ourselves. If there is ever anything in particular that I need to talk to my students about, I can do it in small groups” said Jessica Gilbert, School Counselor for 10th through 12th grades. “If everyone is spread out and in different rooms, everything would be very general when we do our counselor announcements. [This way], we’re able to be more specific when we give out information.”
Of course, many students value this time to work on homework or study. Gilbert said, “Advisory is a great opportunity [for students] to catch up on any work they need to get done, especially classwork that may need to be turned in that particular day. It’s also a really great opportunity for students to be able to talk to teachers, get a pass to go to the library, study for a test, and receive tutoring or extra help on a particular assignment.”
Junior Clarissa Dallenbach said, “Going to another classroom for Advisory takes away precious time. I feel like [Advisory] could be longer, but I am happy with the time: any time is better than no time.”
Last school year, students rotated through each class, except for their lunch blocks, on Red Days as part of Learning Seminar, but remained in their first period class on Blue Days for Study Seminar. This allowed students to catch up on work and for teachers to have extra time to review content and provide extra support for their students.
The reason this rotation changed was because many teachers who did not have a first period class received additional time in their planning period on Blue Days that other teachers lost. The counseling department wanted to revise this so teachers have an equal amount of time in their planning period.
“Our main goal is to be able to see [the students] more often this year. Also, [to generate] more awareness of who your counselor is,” said Gilbert. “We would love to do more lessons and curriculum, not like school work per say, but time management tips, college prep like financial aid, and bringing in the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria.”
The counseling department is looking forward to more face to face time with students and hope that Advisory will be an effective avenue in doing so.
