Many students were outraged at the start of the year to discover that PAWS time was removed from their schedules. In the past, students who had no missing assignments and a C minus or better would be dismissed 15 minutes early from their class on block days. Recently, a discussion emerged in the student senate regarding possibly bringing PAWS time back. Now that a whole semester has passed without PAWS and the initial outrage has died down, we have opinions from teachers and students.
From interviewing my teachers, the data is scattered. When I asked if she noticed changes in focus during block periods, Ms. Kinder reported that “lots of students are falling asleep” especially during the final periods on block days. In the past, PAWS time gave students a much-needed “brain break” between periods, but now block days are only broken up by shorter breaks, barely giving students time to reset. Additionally, Ms. Roumelis said, “It really did help students who just needed an incentive.” Another teacher said it was, “hard to motivate kids to turn literally anything in without PAWS time.” It’s clear that as well as being a nice break, PAWS time was a huge motivation for students who didn’t normally put much effort into schoolwork.
On the other hand, longer periods allow teachers to have in-depth lessons. Mr. Beck, an English teacher said “discussions have been deeper and richer. I haven’t noticed performance going down.” Other teachers have even felt that performance has actually improved. The engineering teacher, Mr. Finney, said that “students are more focused now.” Additionally, in certain challenge classes, students are self-motivated, so removing PAWS time barely makes a difference in their performance. Ms. Isamann said “my students are already motivated,” and it’s likely that this is a common occurrence in many classes.
Even though PAWS time has been removed, many teachers provide class time for students to work. Mr. Kimbrough stated, “I usually give time anyway during the block” for students to work on homework. Additionally, many teachers support some kind of work time. Mr. Zahajko, a Spanish teacher, stated “time should be built in for students to work.” Other teachers mentioned that PAWS time was when they would provide student feedback one-on-one without managing the entire class’s behavior. In general, teachers seem to be 50/50 on the issue of PAWS time, after all, they aren’t the ones being immediately affected.
Students, naturally, support PAWS time. Along with completing work, Kavin Palanisamy (‘25) said she used the extra time to “run errands that I couldn’t fit in at lunch” and “recharge my mental battery.” Additionally, it’s important to note that students may not have access to a focused environment to complete homework. An anonymous student said they used to “get help for homework,” but nowadays students need to stay after school. Removing the activity bus makes it even harder for students to find time to get help. Although teachers have a variety of opinions on PAWS time, most students want it back.
