In middle school, extra help was so easy. You go to class, your teacher tells you when they host extra help, and if you need to go you go. But of course, high school just had to complicate things. At Bethpage High School, teachers don’t get to decide when they host extra help. The faculty decides which two days out of the week (either in pairings of Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday) teachers of each subject host extra help. Now, that’s not the complicated thing. The complicated thing is having those days change per quarter. For example, English extra help is Tuesday-Thursday first and third quarter, but it’s Monday-Wednesday second and fourth quarter.
The changing days make going to extra help complicated for students. For me personally, in my freshman year, I kept forgetting which days extra help were, which caused some stress and confusion for me. But keep in mind, extra help is optional when you’re a student. When you’re a teacher, it’s mandatory you stay till at least 3:00pm when you have an extra help day. This might affect their personal schedule greatly. So how do they deal with it?
According to English teacher Mrs. Bertolloti, “Because we’re told in advance every year that these are the days it doesn’t affect me; I already know this, I expect this, I pre-plan”. However, she also runs the Students United club every Thursday, so wouldn’t extra help days interfere with that? “I do have a co-adviser for the club…Ms. Papetti, so if I do have a student that needs extra help during our club meeting…Ms. Papetti can stay with the club and I can go do extra help in the library if need be. [Because of this] I’m neutral on it. I think it’s whatever’s best for the students. If that best serves the students it should stay that way…it’s not to make me happy and meet my needs…but if it’s what’s best for the students that works.”
Eagles Cry director Mr. Malossi shares similar opinions to Mrs. Bertolloti. He comments, “The change in school schedule is necessary because faculty meetings and department meetings are typically on Mondays and Wednesdays so in the second quarter a lot of extra help days are taken out by one faculty meeting a month, one department meeting a month, so you have two days a month that are gone for extra help…so switching it allows kids some flexibility [and it] allows teachers some flexibility.” But what of club meetings? “So let’s say, for instance, I have my news paper club on Tuesday, so when I have my extra help then kids are coming to that, but you know, a lot of times…the president or the vice president of the club will lead the meeting.”
The extra help schedule at BHS might be confusing, although the changing days do allow for some accessibility for teachers and a chance for students to gain some life experience directing clubs when the manager has extra help.
