Course chaos
Choice sheets are out and due soon
Photo by Truth Dukes
Academic advisor Dolores Schandua visits social studies class to explain the new classes Texas High is offering next year. There are 25 new courses for students to choose from in the upcoming year.
January 27, 2023
There’s a knock at the door and one of Texas High’s hardworking academic advisers enters through the door holding a stack of colored choice sheets. They introduce themselves and hand out the paper that’ll determine what classes you can take next year. They present the slideshow they prepared and leave out the door, leaving you to decide for the upcoming year.
Academic advisers visited social studies classrooms, did their annual presentation on filling in choice sheets, and introduced the new course guidebook.
“Choice sheet and course guidebook presentations are from Jan. 23-26 in social studies classrooms,” academic adviser Patty McDonald said. “Choice sheets will be due to social studies teachers by Feb. 3.”
It is not only important to turn in schedules on time to increase the chance of getting into the classes you want and not getting placed in random classes, but also so the district can hire new teachers for the new courses.
“Texas High School hires and retains teachers based on the interest for the classes,” McDonald said. “We need to know what classes and how many teachers we need to teach them to report to our human resource department so that they can start hiring teachers for the next school year.”
Picking classes can be a little confusing sometimes and can be overwhelming, especially since everything is on paper.
“To make [the process of choosing classes] less overwhelming with all of the information in a packet, they could switch the choice sheets to be digital and more interactive,” freshman Kunan Anjum said.
Choice sheets come out early in the semester due to the lengthy process of making the schedules. Advisers have to go through every student’s choice sheet and make sure they are on the right track.
“The scheduling process is done in several steps throughout the spring semester and over the summer. Advisers check student choices against their transcripts to adhere to graduation requirements and to meet an Endorsement/Program of Study,” academic adviser Dolores Schandua said. “In July, after all selections have been inputted, our scheduling software, TEAMS, randomly schedules all the classes.”
