Jan 16. marks the end of semester one, and the start of a whole new chapter for many students and teachers. The end of the semester means different things to everyone. From scheduling chaos to relief at being halfway done, there is much more that comes with semester switching than meets the eye.
For some students, switching semesters means breathing a sigh of relief. They already survived half of the year, so why not the rest? The fact that there is an end in sight gives many students a reason to keep moving forward. According to sophomore Kate Conlon, the second semester is the downhill fall after the uphill battle of autumn and winter. It puts many students like Conlon at ease, knowing that no matter how hard school gets, they can make it just one more half.
“I see it as an achievement that I survived the first half,” Conlon states.
However, what comes before the slide into the end of the year is the more pressing issue on some students’ minds. For a good handful of the student population, the semester switch means a week full of finals, tests, essays, and reassessments.
“It causes a lot of stress knowing that all the finals are happening at the same time,” Junior Kellsey Allen states.
With extra pressure on students in Advanced Placement and dual enrollment classes, students with full and academically demanding schedules are deep into the pre-semester stress. On top of that, with reassessments and final essays, students are striving to perform at higher rates under higher pressure. Students like Allen are anxiously awaiting the upcoming reward of a four day weekend.
For teachers, the semester switch means all sorts of different things. From fresh faces for some teachers, to the same unchanged routines for others. However, every teacher has the pressing weight of finishing up grades, now that the first semester grading period is coming to a close. Teachers will be hard at work finalizing grades, as well as prepping themselves to make it to the light at the end of the tunnel.
According to science teacher Caitlin Zatroch, the semester change is extremely busy due to so many students suddenly and urgently needing to fix grades. On top of this, having to prepare for the second half of the year takes a lot of work. For her, the semester change doesn’t signal much simply because she doesn’t switch classes like many teachers do. For teachers that are teaching a whole new class in the coming semester, their prep work for semester two will look very different from Zatroch’s.
In the coming weeks, the high school will be buzzing with varying kinds of energy and emotion. From finals stress, to rejoicing over the end of the year being in sight, let’s work hard as a student body to start off the new semester with an open mind, and full of energy.
