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After February break, New Hyde Park Memorial made changes to the school’s morning announcements, implementing the “Memorial Moment” in an effort to optimize educational class time in first period classes.
The Memorial Moment implements a new announcement schedule that will rotate through 1st, 2nd and 3rd periods to ensure that the announcements do not take away from the learning experience during period 1. This was put in place through the NHP Shared Decision-Making committee initiative. However, the pledge continues to be done at the beginning of first period.
“The new announcement schedule is good. The old announcement schedule took away a lot of time from 1st period. Now, it is evenly distributed,” sophomore Thiha Zin said.
“I find that the new announcement schedule disrupts my classes, as it plays during 1st period and another period. It takes away from learning, especially since I have academically rigorous classes at the beginning of my day,” sophomore Ishwin Kler said.
“The old announcement schedule was better, as it disrupted less of the day. The way announcements occur now is more disruptive as announcements usually occur well into 2nd and 3rd periods interrupting teaching time, especially since it is hard to predict when they will happen,” social studies teacher Mr. Laugen said.
The announcements will also be made by different departments, with the schedule rotating every week. This will help develop a sense of community. A chairperson, teacher or student may be in charge, depending on the week. School counselors, librarians, clerical staff, security and custodial staff have also been asked to participate. Anyone who would like to make an announcement must fill out a form two days before being read, as they must be approved by Ms. DeGennaro.
“These announcements are designed to be informative as well as motivational and fun. Announcements, while typically made at the beginning of period 1 after the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, may now be made 1st, 2nd or 3rd period by the scheduled department,” assistant principal Ms. Rodriguez said.
Despite this new design, several NHP staff and students continue to have suggestions for improvements to the new schedule.
“I think a four-minute homeroom should be implemented, before 1st period, taking away one minute from non-lunch periods,” Mr. Laugen said. “This would allow students to settle in and not take away from a significant amount of teaching time.”
