Starting off this 2024-2025 school year with new students and staff, there are also new changes for S.H.S. There’s a limitation to students in the hallway, updates to Skyward (the student management system) and Google Classroom instead of the Skyward Learning Center.
With all these new changes, the hardest one for students is the change to leaving class to go to the bathroom or retrieve an item from a locker, which involves scanning a QR code or being entered into the system.
Teacher Nichole Schlemmer said, “I think for the students it may hurt them but in the long run it will be more effective.”
In previous years, there have been many issues with students abusing their bathroom time and roaming the hallways during class. To avoid these issues, S.H.S. has a new app called 5Star student. In order to go to the bathroom, students have to scan the QR code through their phones and it tells students whether or not they can proceed to the bathroom with a red or green light. The app only allows ten students in the whole school to go to the bathroom at a time.
Sophomore Sadie Hendrix added, “It is a bit challenging that only ten students can be in the hallway at once.”
A change that’s different for students, staff, and parents is the new Skyward. Students no longer get assignments from the Skyward Learning Center. Instead of going to Skyward and getting all work from there, students and parents can only check grades on the new version.
Junior Kevin Marquez added, “Google classroom is a bit easier, but I do wish we just stuck to the Skyward Learning Center.” This is something new that almost everyone has to adapt to even though it’s a bit more straightforward.
Counselor Darci Francis said, “The new Skyward takes some getting used to, but each week I start to feel more comfortable with the changes.”
Adding onto the new Skyward, instead of turning your work into Skyward like it was before, S.H.S. Teachers put assignments on Google Classroom.
History teacher Taylor Jackson said, “I feel like it’s taken time to get used to but Google Classroom does allow us to do so much more compared to before.”
Google Classroom shows every class students are enrolled in and has a turn in spot for every assignment. Just like the old skyward there is a due date and a place where you can find your missing assignments.
Junior Isabella Sylvester said, “I think the Skyward learning center was much easier to access than the new Google Classroom.”
Although these new changes are not something we are all used to, as the school year continues the apps and extra steps we take to go out into the hallway will soon come easy to us or may be ended.
