2022-2023 school year class sign ups move to Aeries

Juliet Swimmer, Staff Writer

Messengers come with 4x5 inch pastel-tinted notes, notes with call times that are spaced 15 minutes apart. The teacher takes the notes and distributes them appropriately. At the designated times, students rise from their desks and slip out to their house offices where for the next 10-15 minutes, they have the counselor’s undivided attention. Then they slip back into their classes, their futures set, at least for the next school year. So January and academic planning season begins.

Every spring semester, students plan their next year’s course of study with their counselors. This year, with help of Aeries, students who make their schedules ahead of the meeting can look forward to a smoother, more productive session. For incoming 9th and 10th graders, 

The meetings are important because they provide the course requests that M-House principal Lissette Bravo uses to determine the master schedule for the next school year, one that depends on the needs and interests of some 2700 students. S-House advisor Amy Golden has helped with the master schedule in past years.

“In building the master, we determine how many sections we need based on student demand. So when students are picking classes it’s important for them to do the research and choose what they really want now so we have enough sections for students to get the classes they want. It isn’t perfect, but we do the best we can to meet student requests,”  Golden said.

Junior Noa Krop found the meetings particularly helpful.

“I was unsure about which English to take. But I decide to take Folk and Myth instead of AP English Lit because I’ve heard it’s really hard,” Krop (‘23) said.

For 9th and 10th grade students, the advisor meetings include the student’s parents for added help. By junior year, students meet with the advisor without parents, so students can take more active roles in advocating for themselves, a skill they will need in college and beyond.