Remember last school year? I mean it’s ok if you don’t; most people are trying to forget about everything that happened during the whole virtual year. But if you think hard enough, you might remember the little check-ins that all the students had for each block during the school week. The school liked to call it hawk-time: a 30 minute dedicated period of time during each day that was reserved for one block of class. Now the school’s back with in-person learning and 90 minute class periods, and the hawk-time is yet to be seen. So this begs the question, should the 30 minute check-in be reintegrated into school class time? 

Let’s start with a little background information to give a little refresher. Although hawk-time was integrated into our schedules for the entire virtual year, it was really only enforced the second semester. Most classes during the first semester didn’t require attendance from the students during their check-ins, unlike the second semester where attendance was required. Back then, school started at 7:30 a.m. and ended at 12:30 p.m., and with only 55 minute class periods, it was pretty easy to fit in a small 30 minute session. Every hawk-time period throughout the week would correspond with a different block (e.g. Monday’s check-in was block 1 while Tuesday was block 2). Nanda Kota, currently a junior at UHS, spent his hawk time sessions asking questions to teachers or studying for different classes. 

“I felt that hawk-time was necessary and a good use of time, and it gave me a chance to meet with teachers during school instead of afterwards,” says the junior. 

And he brings up a good point: a lot of students could productively use those 30 minute sessions to address any issues they have with teachers, ask questions, or complete missing work. A lot of students have sports, extracurricular activities, or jobs to attend right after school, and being able to handle things with teachers that they would otherwise have to do after school could end up saving them a lot of time. Disagreeing with Nanda, however, is Ayush Joshi, a senior at UHS. 

“During hawk-time, a lot of my teachers would just let me out early, and I’d end up just playing games or being unproductive,” says Ayush. 

Unless that time can yield high benefits, then what’s the point of having it at all? Building onto Ayush’s point is Claire Kim, a sophomore at UHS.

“I mostly spent hawk-time on my phone, and if there wasn’t anything to do during that time, then I’d just end up eating lunch,” states the sophomore. 

It’s important to note that Claire had the virtual schedule when she was only a freshman in high school, so she was never accustomed to the way things used to be before Covid-19 ever happened. Now in 90 minute class periods, she feels no need for hawk-time to exist, mainly citing that it’s a waste of time. 

A survey was done using a poll of UHS students, and the results showed that 55% of the students did completely unproductive tasks during their check-ins, like sleeping. Not surprisingly, 66% said that they wouldn’t want hawk-time to ever come back. 

Verdict 

We’ve heard opinions from several people, and now it’s time to make a verdict on the scenario. When it comes to reintegrating hawk-time into student schedules, it’s not just about how productive the time could be spent. It’s also about how the school could find a 30 minute slot of time to be able to reincorporate it. Even though half an hour doesn’t seem like much, trying to fit that into our tight schedule could disrupt class time and the bell schedule. Ultimately, hawk-time isn’t really important enough for it to return, and students can find other times throughout the day to address things with teachers, like right before school or during lunch. Although its intentions were good, hawk-time is meant to be forgotten.