Contrary to the rumors that have been spreading regarding the changes to Atom Time, AHS will not be reverting back to Flex.
The tentative changes will begin April 10 as students return from Spring Break.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter there will be Focus Weeks that will take the place of the time allotted for Atom Time, however the W4 period will remain the same. Focus Weeks put emphasis on the core subject areas such as science, math, English and history.
“The main concept of Atom Time is still there; we’ll still have W4 and Atom Time, except we’ll have a focus on science, focus on math, and this way we’re streamlining our efforts towards SOL preparation,” Principal Vince Randazzo said.
Once the changes are officially made, students will follow the regular bell schedule with minor changes. Beginning on April 9, when students come back from Spring Break, Atom Time will still be instated. However, there will also be Focus Weeks during this time. In addition, W4 will run for only 10 minutes in order to accommodate the constant changes in student schedules. Atoms in Good Standing, Atoms in Bad Standing and Directed Students will still be functioning during this time. Depending on the Focus Week, specific teachers will have precedent over which students they want to come to their classrooms during the extended Atom Time block. For example, if it is an English Focus Week, English teachers will be able to select which students they want to meet with during this time and Atom Time statuses will not apply for those specific students.
Beginning May 21 with the start of SOL Exams, the Focus Week Atom Times will be replaced by a single block. The typical rules regarding Atoms in Good Standing, Atoms in Bad Standing and Directed Students will not be instated during this time. W4 will also run for its regular time, which will last until June 8.
The sudden change came as a result of planning and acknowledging the constraints that come with Atom Time and not having teachers available. A committee was formed with core subject department chairs, Special Ed representatives, the administration, the Testing Coordinator and the Atom Time Coordinator, Brianne Trotochaud. The committee was focused on creating a comprehensive schedule that would accommodate testing.
The weeks will be separated by each core subjects, for example one week consisting of either two or three Atom Time periods will be focused on science. Students requested by the teacher for a corresponding subject will have to report to that teacher regardless of whether they are Atoms in Good Standing, Atoms Not In Good Standing or Directed Atoms.
Once students receive their new assignments at the beginning of the fourth quarter, certain students who have been requested by a teacher to go to their class during a Focus Week will receive a paper notice from Trotochaud.
The teacher has to contact Trotochaud or her stand-in geometry teacher Jan Austin if they want to pull out a student or request a student during the Focus Weeks. Any changes in the schedules for any student will receive notification directly from the Atom Time Coordinator.
The idea for the changes in Atom Time came suddenly as the administration and teachers were faced with many issues regarding the organization of test preparedness and the availability of teacher proctors.
“We had a couple of different parameters that came up for instance we didn’t have any teachers to proctor during the SOLs and they were stuck in the basic Atom Time,” Randazzo said. “Then also we saw this as an opportunity to really fine tune our testing strategies and getting to the new testing navigation systems with the SOL tests coming up.”
Due to the fact that Atom Time is new this year, the administration has been scrambling to accommodate the issues that arise in response to the change.
“We didn’t anticipate this, and this is what we came up with to alleviate that problem and hopefully we’ll have better ideas for next year,” Randazzo said.
Although the basis for the Focus Weeks is to prepare for the SOLs, some teachers are taking advantage of the extra time to help their IB students prepare for the upcoming tests in May.
“Atom Time is supposed to be a time for struggling students. yes, we have to worry a lot about SOLs but also worry about IB Tests, “ IB Biology teacher Claudia Lemus said. “I do have some IB kids who are struggling who I want to help during the Focus Week.”
Teachers who plan on solely using the time for SOL review are putting together review packets, and preparing other methods of helping students review for the tests.
“Review of specific material is important, what I do is record which test questions kids have struggled with and that’s how I plan to use the Focus Weeks, “ IB History of Americas and US/VA government teacher Joel Jepson said.
