Story by Mireya Rodriguez
Staff Writer
Since school started in the middle of August, teachers and students of Bishop Amat have been feeling the heat.
Temperatures have consistently been in the 90s and have, at times, reached 100. After weeks of extreme heat, last week saw a dip in the temperatures.
But the heat is on its way back with temperatures that might reach 90 degrees on Friday.
In order to combat the heat, the school has taken a couple of measures.
Each morning at 6:30, staff goes through each classroom turning on the coolers, which work to lower initial classroom temperature.
But the students’, and teachers’, favorite measure has been the decision to turn four regular school day schedules into minimum days.
There have been negatives to the decision to shorten classes to 60 minutes.
“Students might experience a sense of rushing through a particular lesson in order to stay on track,” Mrs. Josie Ramos wrote in an e-mail. “The consequences to minimum day however do not override the benefits of a reduced schedule.”
Mr. Rodolfo Hernandez said the shortened day forces him to adjust his teaching to include “activities that require and encourage a little bit more movement in the classroom.”
Some students said they feel that the heat changes makes their teachers more irritable.
“As the heat turned to the extreme it started to seem as if the heat not only affected the students but the teachers as well,” said junior Isaac Pelayo. “Frustration is one of the ways some let it out.”
Junior Nicole Rivas said that because of the heat many of her teachers become moody and spend more time yelling at students than teaching the lesson.
Students said they see minimum days as opportunities to get out of school early to escape the afternoon heat.
“I have to walk to school in the morning and walk home after school so the heat drains my energy,” said junior Andres Martinez.
