Emily’s Opinion
If you’ve read our last story on the bell schedule, you probably know I’m not the biggest fan of it but if you haven’t, now you know. After a semester of classes, I believe I still feel more at ease with the previous bell schedule, but I have adjusted to the new one. Block days occurred on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday of the bell calendar for 2021–2022, and collaboration days occurred on Wednesdays. The bell schedule for 2022–2023 is changed, with block days only occurring on Tuesday and Wednesday, collaborative days occurring on Monday, and normal days occurring on Thursday and Friday.
Due to the new schedule, teachers occasionally don’t get to finish their lessons in the allotted 50 minutes and tend to rush them. As a result, some students rush and get stressed out. Teachers don’t have to rush through their lessons on days with a two-hour block. Moreover, during the two hours, students had more time to ask questions or acquire more material. Additionally, students get a second day to complete their three classes’ assignments and more time for studying during the old schedule. Teachers tend to give tests the day right after and with an extra day, we can study the necessary information needed. The chance of teachers giving tests on the same day is also higher now which stresses many students out. Collaboration days being on Monday have also benefited students. Not much work is given out on a short day, leaving Monday as a rest day after the weekend.
Powertime is still a great addition to the new schedule. It’s the ideal opportunity for students to finish their homework, make up any tests or quizzes they missed, and speak with their teachers for more explanation or assistance. Many students have had a lot of support from Powertime in finishing my homework so they can rest more at home. Powertime also gives students the time to relax after being in two classes for almost four hours. Ideally, Powertime isn’t a time to socially interact with others but many students don’t have that opportunity to meet up with their peers. Thus, many Aztecs take advantage of Powertime, even if getting work done should be the top priority.
Keppel sophomore, Xiangying Chen, says, “I prefer last year’s bell schedule because the homework load was less and more manageable. To allow students to take breaks after two hours in a class, it would be nice to incorporate this year’s break between first and second blocks into the old schedule. The block schedule also provided more time to cover the entire lecture and to complete lab experiments in one block as opposed to dispersing them over several days.”
The 21-22 Bell Schedule is more preferable than this year’s. There’s more time to study, more time to do assignments, a day of break from the two hour class, and help teachers complete lessons on time. The 22-23 Bell Schedule has Powertime which is a great addition to the schedule as students can get work done during the time period. However, teachers aren’t able to finish their lessons and students are crammed into multiple tests a day.

Audrey’s Opinion
After a whole semester of school has passed by, it’s safe for me to say that my opinion about the bell schedule has stayed the same! With the bustling high school environment, more and more holidays being on Mondays, and just the overall feel of the school, the schedule has been working in my favor. Other students might not have the same opinions as me, but I think that this year’s bell schedule is better than last year’s.
Last year’s bell schedule, as you might’ve seen in our other story, was two block schedule days on Monday and Tuesday, a short collab day on Wednesday, which was followed by two other block schedule days on Thursday and Friday. This schedule made it hard for students to catch up on missing work since there weren’t very many opportunities to see that teacher in the same week/day. In the last story, it’s stated that the collaboration day on Monday was a great new addition to this year’s schedule because of how short the periods were. The statement from the last story still stands, because nothing is ever really learned on Mondays. It is usually just a review of what students have learned the past week, and maybe a little preview of what the students will learn on the following days. Students are always looking forward to the collaboration days on Mondays, since it’s pretty much a transitional day from the weekend to the start of a school week. Everybody hates Mondays, anyways!
Speaking of new additions to this year’s bell schedule, the PowerTime periods have especially helped with catching up on late work/assignments that students have missed from being sick. Last semester, no one really knew what PowerTime’s importance was. People were only going to hang out with their friends and not get any work done. But this semester, students are prioritizing getting their work done in a quiet classroom where they can actually focus, as opposed to scheduling a PowerTime class, where their friends have also scheduled, and not getting any work done at all. It’s nice being able to have a nice workflow and not let themselves get distracted by talking to friends or being in a loud area with other people.
Katelyn Aguiniga, a sophomore at Mark Keppel High School, also thinks that this year’s schedule is better than last year’s schedule. When asked for her reasoning why, she said, “…because the long periods at the beginning of the week give teachers a chance to teach one main lesson. The shorter periods allow them to do mini lessons based on the main lesson.”
In conclusion, the statement goes as originally stated! If anything, it gives students great opportunities for making up missing assignments and getting work done at a fast pace. Although other students might not see eye to eye with me, my opinion stays the same.
Conclusion
After interviewing twenty students from Keppel, the conclusion is that more students prefer the 22-23 Bell Schedule. 45% of twenty students like the 21-22 Bell Schedule while 55% like the new schedule more. From what we heard from students, they prefer the old schedule due to less rushed lessons, more time to study, tests aren’t crammed in a day, and an extra day for assignments. On the other hand, students prefer the new schedule more because of less class time but more time to see friends. Some students have mentioned that back then, teachers did not give breaks, which is additionally a huge reason why students didn’t like it. Overall, the 22-23 schedule is definitely winning the students over the 21-22 one.