Seminar is intended to be a time for students to get ahead on homework, get the help they need from teachers and to finish up projects and tests that there wasn’t enough time to finish in class. However, the current restrictions on Seminar make it difficult for students to utilize their time most effectively.

The first issue with Seminar is the fact that students are only allowed to travel to one location. While Seminar has been significantly shortened from past years, students still should have the option to travel to two places. In many cases, students have more than one item they need to complete during Seminar, and while time may be limited students should be allowed to split their Seminar if needed. If a student only needs to travel to a Seminar to ask a teacher a quick question or to turn in an assignment, they end up stuck in this teacher’s classroom for the whole period and aren’t able to complete other assignments during Seminar.

Another issue with Seminar is the sign-in system used for travel. While the system is intended to prevent students from roaming the halls or lying about where they are traveling, the system only ends up taking time away from students and teachers.

Signing out and keeping tracking of an entire class of 20 students is difficult for teachers and takes away from time they could use helping students during Seminar. Waiting to be signed out of one Seminar and into another also cuts into the limited time students have for work during the period.

A possible solution to this is to allow honor card holders to travel without using the current computer system. These students have already proven themselves to be trustworthy and responsible, and these honor card holders are already allowed to leave Seminar 10 minutes early. Allowing these students to travel freely is a reasonable addition to the privileges honor card holders already have, and it would give teachers and students more time to get their work done.

The final problem with Seminar is the fact that it is frequently closed for grade checks. While Seminar is only closed once every two weeks, these lost days are a major inconvenience when a student needs to make up a test or finish a project. In addition, these grade checks rarely take the entire class period. Closed Seminar for grade checks ends up hurting students with passing grades, as they are forced to stay in Seminar for a grade check that only takes five minutes. A possible compromise on this issue is to only close Seminar for half of the period for grade checks, or to allow students to leave once they have received the okay on their grades.

Overall, Seminar is an important time for students to take care of their make up work and homework. However, with a few changes that would allow students to use the limited Seminar time more effectively, students would be able to accomplish more during their Seminar period.