X Block on Short Weeks

One of the best additions NHS has made to its daily schedule over the past few years is the 30 minute X-Block periods every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. X-Block is a time for students to get work done, meet with teachers, get extra help, or make up any missed work if they were recently absent. According to a poll conducted on the Hilltopper’s Instagram, 91 percent of people use X-Block at least once or twice a month. However, this becomes really difficult in a month like this past November, where two weeks in a row had a day off on an X-Block day. 

When we have a Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday off, the time we have to meet with teachers is drastically shortened. I, for one, experienced more than one occasion this past month when there was not enough time to meet with a teacher during X-Block to clarify assignments or subject matter. While students are always excited about a day off, the lack of time they have to understand the curriculum during a short week can add unnecessary stress.

Therefore, we need a solution, and my proposal is simple. While it would be impossible to add X-Block to Friday, since our Friday schedule is 30 minutes shorter due to the delayed opening, we do have a 30 minute “no movement X-Block,” or advisory, built into our regular Wednesday schedule. Advisory is used to conduct school-wide activities intended to improve the school’s social-emotional learning. In a short week, however, it would be easy to temporarily abolish advisory in favor of an extra X-Block. 

But would this change even be helpful? Students certainly think so. When asked, senior Anika Ray exclaimed, “Oh, 100 percent!” Sophomore Zoe Berg affirmed, “That would be helpful.”

X-Block serves a multitude of purposes, from fostering student-teacher relationships  to increasing student understanding of content to providing extra support and work time. None of us, the school administration included, have any control over when there cannot be school, but we can control how we utilize the learning time we are given, even during a short week. An extra X-Block is the perfect way to do that.