It’s 7:27 in the morning and while the students are chuckling at the announcements, some teachers are scrambling to adjust lesson plans at the length of them. Recently, the morning announcements have been passing the five minutes allotted to them. The leadership class has also added another new feature to the announcements, extending them even further.
Beginning on the day of the Langley- McLean football game, Leadership added a new special called “High School Game Day,” (a playoff of ESPN’s “College Game Day”). The new program is designed to inform and excite students about important Langley games.
With hosts senior AJ Scalia and juniors Billy Orme and JT Meyer, “High School Game Day” is supposed to provide an engaging way to start the day. Some teachers said the morning announcements are too long and take time out of lessons. “There may be something that gets rolled over to the next class or a few minutes is added on to the work at home,” said English teacher Kevin Howard.”
Meanwhile math teacher Matthew Pitkewicz would like to see the announcements stay at five minutes. “Teachers plan for an hour and 30 minute class.”
“A lot of teachers give compliments, but for every compliment there is a complaint,” said announcer AJ Scalia. “If you don’t wait long enough before saying the pledge or if time runs over by a few minutes, teachers will criticize you.” There is a bottom line, however, which is finishing within the five-minute time slot given to Leadership for the morning announcements. If the slot exceeds five minutes, teachers could be slightly thrown off of their class agendas. High School Game Day might go over that five-minute mark.
“It’s hard to be short with the content in five minutes,” said Leadership teacher Ms. Sandy Hamilton. “There are a lot of announcements that have to be made and sometimes they cannot be finished within five minutes.”
Whether or not it receives complaints, the announcers are staying positive. “The student body seems pretty pumped up,” said junior announcer J.T. Meyer.