Change is a wonderful and necessary thing in this day and age, so it is safe to say that with the addition of all these recent changes at Becton, the school looks more like a professional place, is more student friendly, and as Principal Dr. Sforza wanted when he first arrived, mimics a college campus. From new classes to enroll in, to getting an internship for those classes during school hours, everything that happened this year is a clear upgrade.

The most obvious of the changes is the addition of the rotate drop schedule. Inspired by many different schools such as Hawthorne High School and Secaucus High School, this schedule allows students to be refreshed with a new order of classes on certain days.

“Students will adapt; it does take a while to get used to,” stated Principal Dr. Sforza.

Having a stale and stagnant flow of the same classes every day can certainly cause students to be tired or out of focus. The new schedule being implemented completely erases this and rotates the classes, so students do not have the same class the same period as he or she had the previous day.

Furthermore, to maximize the learning in all these classes, each period is now 55 minutes instead of the previous 42. This extra time allows the teacher to reach out to students who need extra help or who may just learn differently. Within the 55 minutes, the instructor can show a video and still give a lesson without altering the learning process or the “I’ll finish this lesson tomorrow” situation.

Dr. Sforza stated that he wants to “differentiate lessons to not only include lecture and recitation, but also problem based learning, which research suggests is the best learning experience.”

Moving on, the most annoying feeling in school is waiting behind a group of people standing around in the halls, creating the possibility of tardiness for the next class and/or getting detention. This problem did not go unnoticed because now, there will be 3 bells instead of the classic ‘end class’ ‘start class’ bells. This new bell system will be placed before the first bell after lunch. Basically, if students want to avoid the ‘standing around’ crowd while getting materials for the upcoming classes, it is now possible. Different chimes will be used to signify the warning bell in order to prevent confusion and the warning will be one minute before lunch ends plus the three minutes after the first bell rings giving the full four minutes that all the students and teachers are used to.

Finally, although it is still in its planning stage, Dr. Sforza is starting a program for seniors who wish to have an internship. Senior students will have the ability to modify their schedule in order for them to leave in the afternoon, based on what they would like to do in the future. This, in turn, would help them build the skills needed to perform interviews, create effective resumes, and see if their chosen career is the right fit. Dr. Sforza hopes this internship program would be in full effect next year.