The change in schedule at Hastings High School brought with it a change in routine for many different organizations. One of these organizations is Freshmen Mentoring Program. Since all the freshmen no longer eat lunch at the same time, the inner workings of FMP have changed significantly.
FMP now takes place on the last day of the week during T3. Freshmen report to their assigned FMP room, while everyone else goes to their assigned T3 room. All competitions and lessons take place on Fridays, or the last day of the week, and mentors train the second half of T3 on Tuesdays.
Senior mentor Taylor Kidwell says that it has mostly remained the same, apart from a few differences.
“We do the same things we did before, but instead of meeting twice for 20 minutes, we meet once for 40 minutes,” Kidwell said.
Despite the change in schedule, the fun level has remained much the same.
“It’s pretty fun. You do fun things and can go crazy about it, like the competition for the school song,” freshman Sam Johnson said.
Johnson also says that having to go someplace else for T3 is not too different from his regular day to day schedule.
“It’s easy because I know where I’m going and I know the teacher,” Johnson said. “It would be confusing for someone who didn’t know the teacher.”
There are some downsides to the new schedule. Kidwell says that she doesn’t feel like she has time to get to know her freshmen as much as she did last year with the old schedule.
“I liked it better last year because I got to see the people in my FMP more than once a week. I like to be around them more than once a week,” Kidwell said. “We also don’t get the same privileges as we did last year because we don’t get two lunch periods.”
Johnson says that for the most part, he doesn’t mind missing T3 most of the time, but there are some times that he does mind.
“FMP gets in the way of T3 a little when you have to study for other subjects,” Johnson said. “One Friday I had a geometry test the next period and I would have liked to study for it right before.”
Overall, the changes to Freshmen Mentoring Program have been positive and not stressful to students like Johnson.
“It’s easy to understand, because it’s kind of like your homeroom, so it’s not a new idea,” Johnson said. “Especially after coming from middle school, you’re used to having a homeroom before or after lunch.”
Ultimately, the fun level and the overall impact FMP has on its freshmen will remain solid.
