The Fun Never Stops

St. Anselm's school year for upperclassmen works as follows: regularly-scheduled classes end the Friday before the start of the two AP weeks. Given that students typically will take three or more of these 3-to-4 hour tests, it makes reasonable sense to not even worry about having classes these two weeks. Given the tests' comprehensive nature, students feel entitled to a multi-hour r+r period after taking the test. I do too. The administration's support for leaving time after the last class and before exam week is that teachers will get to use all their classtime up to AP weeks teaching new material. Students would then study on their own with a review sheet, and come in if they want help. Washington Christian Academy in Germantown, MD, also uses this open scheduling system during AP weeks, to my knowledge.

So you may think that this time as a two-week reprieve, but read this: Teachers can still have due dates on papers and projects, and athletic teams still hold practice. Despite this, I know that some students have used this time to catch up on missed vacation, but apparently that's not me.

I finished my last AP of the year, Biology, on Monday at noon. Yet, I've been up and around, at school handing in papers and prize submissions, finishing on the engineering class' group semester project, attending track practice, and handling all of the pre-enrollment material for the Academy ahead of July. Oh, and I shouldn't forget about the social events, nor the exams next week.

Sceptics of open scheduling during AP weeks can see that, well, at least a few students are putting their larger chunks of open time to good use.