WOODBURY — Now embedded into Nonnewaug High School’s schedule are two new periods students are adjusting to. These new periods are called Focus Fridays and Tribe Tuesdays. These times are intended to help students with their schoolwork by allowing them to work one-on-one or in small groups with teachers.
“We wanted to rebrand a little bit, because it’s not just flex,” said principal Mykal Kuslis talking about the name of the period last year. “It was similar to a study hall. Kids looked at [Flex] as another study hall last year.”
Focus and Tribe are used as more of a class time to work with teachers if needed.
Students and teachers hold differing opinions on how these flexible time slots are being used. Some students may use this as a free time, other students use it to their full potential.
“I find it helpful,” said Christopher Engle, an NHS sophomore. “It’s added practice to any work that you have. It’s extra [time] to work on classwork that you couldn’t finish; it’s good for kids with AP classes or very tedious classes.”
The main change for this class for the agriscience students. Students studying agriculture can participate in real-world agricultural experiences, including as jobs or volunteer work, under the Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) program. Students studying agriculture must complete this in order to maintain their active status in their agriscience programs which makes having a scheduled meeting time, like NHS’ Tribe or Focus, all the more important. A minimum of 200 SAE hours is required for agriscience students.
“It was all driven by the ag side,” Kuslis said. “On Tribe Tuesdays [ag teachers] have half their SAE kids, and on Focus they have the other half.”
This time is also used for FFA meetings.
“We do have our chapter meetings during these times,” said Gillian Blood, an agriculture instructor who helps facilitate chapter meetings where agriscience students celebrate and share information. “We have two a month because of the new schedule we have them during Focus or Tribe.”
While many students are able to utilize this time, some hold a different viewpoint.
“I find students doing other things,” said Rebecca Gambardella of the English department. She says while most students take advantage of this time, there are some that are “chatting, socializing, and fooling around.”
There is, however, a tremendous opportunity for students to use this time wisely.
“I think there is potential for the period to be productive,” said Marty Malaspina, a math teacher. “It’s kind of on the students to take initiative during those periods, and if they do, they are extremely productive.”
While these flexible time slots are used in a variety of ways, there was tremendous consideration for how students were placed in Tribe and Focus groups.
“It allows kids to make up work during the school day so they don’t have to stay after school when they might have to go to sports or jobs,” business teacher Devon Bares said. “It gives an opportunity to see any teacher and guidance is here.”
The purpose of the classes is to give students the opportunity to work on necessary assignments. Building in these flexible times helps to keep students current on classwork.
“We tried to schedule them with teachers they have this year, clubs that needed to meet, and kids that had struggles with in classes last year,” Kuslis explained. “Overall, it was sorted to the individual themselves.”
