Written by: Caitlin Gann, Staff Writer
ENHANCEMENT: Poly implements Enhancement period schoolwide.
The new in-person school year is bringing many changes to Poly High School: renovations, new staff and even a new gym. The newest addition to the school’s schedule is an enhancement period. Enhancement is on Tuesdays and Thursdays after the student’s third period. Enhancement was added to give students more time for academics and time to bond with teachers on the campus. Students use enhancement for study hall, club meetings or student support. Ms. Beckman uses this period to have student support groups or as study hall. They use this time to relax, do work or create art while she plays calming music. When Ms. Beckman was asked about her thoughts on enhancement she explained that she is “really excited about what it offers to students.” She also loves that students no longer have to sacrifice their time and enhancement “is giving them that time back.” Ms. Beckman expressed that most students come because her room is a safe space. On the other side, enhancement is a great time for club meetings because more students can get together without using up their own time. Mr. Habereder uses enhancement period for music tech club. Students use this time to be creative with the technology in his room and simply “hang out”. They play instruments and use the electronic keyboards and drums. Mr. Habereder enjoys that “there is less pressure to give up our lunches because we already have time to help struggling students or offer makeup assignments in enhancement.” Two bands also practice in Mr. Habereder’s enhancement created by Melissa Lysiak (11). They will have live performances at lunch in the Amphitheater soon – so look out.
Students’ opinions on enhancement are generally positive. Some students love enhancement and would not change a single thing, like Mason Duarte (12). He loves being able to change his classes and the freedom of not having to stick to something the whole year. Duarte thinks that “the variety of different types of classes is really cool.” Kaytlin Putnam (10) enjoys that enhancement gives her time to do homework and get caught up. Putnam explains that enhancement “sometimes feels kind of pointless, because if [she doesnt] have anything to do it feels like a waste of time.” Overall, however, enhancement is predominantly favored by students.
My opinion on enhancement is very mixed. I love the idea of enhancement, but the execution could be better. It makes the periods shorter; meaning that we only have two full periods a week which is appears to be difficult for some teachers and students. For me personally, the shorter periods make it harder to finish my classwork and I notice that some of my teachers also struggle with fitting in lessons. Enhancement also provides tutoring and study hall for students who need extra time or help with a topic without taking away students’ personal time. However, the sign-up process for enhancement is flawed. Students are expected to sign up online on their own, but this can be hard for certain students, especially since there is always the possibility of the technology failing them. Perhaps a dedicated 10 minutes in a particular period across campus could eliminate many students inability to sign up. When students do not sign up they are given lunch detention as a punishment. While this is not a harsh punishment, I do not think that lunch detention is an effective punishment. Of course, there still does need to be some kind of punishment for students who do not sign up. Obviously, Poly cannot have students randomly walking around that do not take enhancement seriously, so some type of accountability is certainly needed to deter students from not signing up. I also don’t like that with enhancement several things are scheduled on the same day. For example, on October 26th ASL Club, Book Club, and Sports Medicine club were all meeting. This does not allow students to be in more than one of these clubs or it forces them to prioritize one club. Another issue is, the site is down frequently, and there are bugs throughout the site.
Overall, the addition of enhancement was a fantastic decision, but there are many kinks that need to be worked out. Hopefully, as teachers and students alike become accustomed to this new Enhancement system it will be improve and continue to benefit Poly’s student body.
