As we anxiously count down the days to break, it seems as teachers have saved the rest for last. All throughout our time in school we our continuously battered down and told to not wait to the last minute to do all assignments and spread our work load out evenly. Yet as major breaks in the school year approach, it seems as the shoe is on the other foot now and teachers are the ones waiting till the last minute to assign major projects, tests, and assignments that could potentially make or break your semester grade.

Students believe our workload and what is expected of us should be better planned out for the entire semester, and not the last two weeks of the grading period. Junior Stephanie Danek shares that as teachers assign last minute tests and projects, “it becomes stressful and overwhelming making it hard to keep track of all work that must be completed.” Many times we find ourselves barely making it to the beloved Winter Break as the weeks prior to it, we’re drowning in last minute assignments teachers decide to throw our way. Another victim of this cause is Briana Kwit who finds she is so stressed she doesn’t have a minute to breathe. Teachers are even teaching lessons before the end of the year that seem too rushed through. Kwit shares “Everything shouldn’t be cammed together because we don’t process everything so quickly.” Faculty should keep in mind that we do not only belong to their one class and we have 5 other classes with similar responsibilities. Often times believing if they assign us a lot of work for their class in specific, our other 4 classes won’t have similar standards set. Leyden faculty does an outstanding job of providing and understanding students needs, but they should also understand they cannot squeeze in any last minute leftover assignments all at once. Many times students are already checked out and with such an overload from all classes will perform worse on given assignments then they would of if given more time to complete it.

The penultimate and final week should offer students the time for in class review for finals and questions that need answering. To expect an individual to recall an entire semester of classwork for 5 different class seems unlikely and nearly impossible. If given the time to begin review earlier than a week or a few days before finals, students would feel more confident coming into their period finals and not be drained, barely making it across the finish line.