Madeline Kempf Staff Writer
With the new 8 period schedule, 3 additional minutes were purposely added into second period for students to watch simulcast. Despite these extra given minutes, some teachers are still not showing the announcements. Recently an email has been sent out from the Assistant Principals reminding and requiring teachers to show simulcast.
“Often times, we get priorities different. In second period, we have fifty-three minutes and three minutes of second period is to show the simulcast so our job is to remind teachers to do that. I don’t think they think its not important; I think its just a haste to get a lesson started. So my job is to remind them to do it because its very important information there. Then after several reminders you’ll find that the vast majority will do it because it becomes an expectation and it becomes a ritual that you do it and it won’t become a problem after we build it in to what we do every day,” Assistant Principal Melvin Echard said.
Yet even with the constant reminders, there’s still a select few teachers that deprive their students of what they need to see.
“It doesn’t really surprise me because kids will just come in and for some reason say ‘We’re not allowed to watch simulcast’ or ‘teachers don’t show simulcast’ or ‘we never get to see simulcast’. I hear it all the time; it doesn’t surprise me,” simulcast teacher Cambri Ensminger said.
As teacher of the class, its bothersome to find out that all the effort her students give into it is unrecognized by those teachers who don’t show simulcast. The communication barrier between those who don’t show simulcast and those who’re hopeful to enforce it continue to stay content in the same mindset that they’ve all been in.
“I really wouldn’t say I’m disappointed, but I really just don’t understand why [teachers] wouldn’t. I know there are some with legitimate reasons like their projector doesn’t have a bulb or their sound doesn’t work or whatever the case is hardware-wise, but those that can show it and don’t show it….I’m not really sure why,” Ensminger said.
As she tries to understand why certain teachers refuse to show the news, her students are just as upset, if not more. They’ve also come to realize the lack of effort put in by some for them to see it.
“I’ve asked some kids for feedback like ‘Do you ask your teachers to show it? and if you do, what do they say?’ The last thing I heard was that we don’t have time to show it, even though there are an additional three minutes built into the period just for that. The announcements are three minutes and we have an additional three minutes so it doesn’t really make sense to me why somebody wouldn’t show the announcements,” Ensminger said.
An email has been sent out reminding teachers to show the news but it proves ineffective as those few who never show it continue to ignore simulcast.
“Its kind of like a little slap on the wrists but that’s just about it. I don’t know if there need to be but consequences even if that’s just an email to an individual as opposed to the entire faculty.”
The same students are missing simulcast every day yet nothing has been done for them. As for Ensminger, hope lies in a change of more than an email. The dedication put forth for the students hasn’t gone unaccounted for.
“I really wish that more could be done in terms of enforcing, and i don’t know if enforcing is the word, but just verifying that it happens because it’s not all the teachers and it seems like it’s the same teachers so it doesn’t really make sense to me why it can’t be just individually with that particular teacher as opposed to this mass email. So it’s an email, so then what, the kids still don’t get to see it.”
