With winter break starting on Monday, some teachers are providing students with the opportunity to bring their grades up or do any assignments they missed over the course of the quarter in a recovery week that ends Friday. 

The main focus of the academic recovery days is to focus on struggling students and any who need extra help on assignments, both current and missing. According to medical terminology teacher, Kari Lark, It is also a time for teachers to check in with students and see how they are doing, especially virtual students.

“When I first started having academic recovery days, I was afraid that some students would take advantage of it and wait to turn lots of work in at the last minute,” Lark said. “That has not been the case. Most students just need help or a little extra time, some need to make up a quiz or test. I also use this time for enrichment activities during normal years…[I like] to check in with students and see how they are doing as well.”

Outdoor education teacher, Tim Brennan, has another view, however, as even though he is one of the teachers allowing students to catch up on their work, students should also not fail to take responsibility for their work – or the lack of work some might say.

“I believe that even though I am giving them a second chance to make any assignments up, they should take some responsibility because in the real world, you won’t get too many second chances,” Brennan said. “I am allowing them to do assignments they missed, but I’ll give them a lower grade than normal for missing the due date. If, however, I believe they truly put effort into their work, I’ll give them a grade based off of the work put into it.”

Sophomore, Pratham Shah, is taking advantage of this week to bring his grades up as the semester wraps up.

“I believe that the academic recovery week is an amazing opportunity for people who haven’t been able to catch up on grades lately,” Shah said. “It’s been a rough semester and year and I believe this is a great way to help students and give them one more chance before grades get sent in. I am using this opportunity to hopefully get my grades up from some quizzes I didn’t do too good in.”