Students use the few moments on Mondays and Fridays are used by many students to do homework, play games on their phones, or socialize with those in their class. 

Where homeroom falls flat is the activities that teachers make the students participate in. I am not talking about school-related activities like No Place for Hate presentations and events. I am talking about playing games like Jeopardy, and making us watch videos (unrelated to counseling videos or Titan TV) that the students will disregard anyways. 

Homeroom should be a lengthier, less structured, period of time so that students have time to get some of their work done, one upwards of 30 minutes. According to Principal Richard Nash homeroom is 20 minutes long because “Anything longer than 26 minutes of instruction requires a teacher to report a grade.”

The issue with timing and productivity in Homeroom arises when students have finished listening to the morning announcements and watching Titan TV. According to Nash, homeroom is meant for teachers and the administration to do their work that needs to reach students. “Students use Homeroom like an Off-Roll. It is meant to be used as an adult connection to campus,” Nash said. 

If Homeroom is meant for administration to get things done, as well as promote activities on campus for spirit weeks, mental health, acceptance of others, or anti-drug presentations, but teachers using extra time to play games is inappropriate. Unscheduled time is more important for students than the time used by teachers to play games because there are students who want to try to crank out whatever work they have accumulated throughout the first two periods of the day. 

When I walk into my Homeroom, I just want a break. I understand that teachers may want their students to remain stimulated, but students just want to sit down, socialize, and scroll on their phones. If I want to do homework, I have such a measly amount of time to do so. There is just not enough time to do the homework that I have acquired by 11 a.m.