Counseling Office Contents Homework Calculator

Five AP classes straight in a row, two hours of practice for soccer, an unfinished project due in two days, is a schedule that some students have in mind for the following year. This hectic schedule is barely manageable and causes stress. To make students fully aware of the implications of their filled to the brim schedules, the counseling office invented a homework calculator for students to fill out and see if they are capable of managing all of their classes. The homework calculator compares a week of 168 hours to an estimated amount spent on homework, daily activities, and extracurriculars.

With both academic and active time encroaching more and more on healthy living, students who over schedule themselves have become a campus wide endemic.

However, Counselor Heather Gerber gives advice in her perspective.

“Colleges want to see students challenge themselves, but not go overboard where they are so stressed out that it takes a negative toll,” Counselor Heather Gerber said.

The purpose of the homework calculator is to have students rethink their schedule by predicting its time commitment and let them have an idea of what they are getting involved in. This tool is beneficial for both students and teachers to manage their classes.

“I think it’s going to help with communication of the teacher and students,” Gerber said. “The bottom line is that kids won’t be caught off guard and will know what their workload and expectation of each subject area is.”

Students in the past also agree that the tool is beneficial and express their opinion on the homework calculator.

“Students can go to bed earlier. Their time is managed so they will have more time to do things they feel like doing,” sophomore Louie Enriquez said. “Also they will get their homework done instead of cramming the next morning or night.”

For the well-being and health of the students, faculty members voice their concerns for the student’s sake.
“Too much stress can make students lose sleep and then they are not performing at their best,” Student Store manager Pattie Ness said.