Editor’s note: The SHIFT Chronicles is a new monthly feature dedicated to amplifying student voices, where those most impacted by the public education system share their thoughts, reflections, and experiences. In collaboration with FaithBridge SHIFT fellows, these commentaries offer a genuine glimpse into the challenges students are facing within our city’s schools. These students represent a diverse range of schools across the city, each with distinct cultures and expectations, yet all united under the DPS banner. A special thank you to all the student writers who contributed their entries.
This month’s entries focus on the start of a new school year.
Audrey Goodman, junior, East High School
Taking four AP classes in my junior year, I knew I would have a large workload, but I never expected it to be this big. After seven hours of school, I somehow come home with over three hours of homework, daily.
In AP pre-calculus, the teachers decided it would be best to do what’s called a “flipped classroom.” We are sent home with a video we must watch that teaches us the lesson, and we return to school the next day with any questions we have. In theory, this method seems cool and effective. In reality, it’s not.
I spend seven hours a day, five days a week at school, but I have to learn my math lessons at home? That doesn’t make sense. I am feeling frustrated about this method because while it takes time from students outside of school, it can also encourage students to skip class. Since we’re doing all the work at home anyway, why would we want to attend class?
On top of balancing my schoolwork, I am also expected to meet with my SAT/ACT tutor, keep up with my house chores, go to work, attend constitutional law meetings, participate in debate boot camps, take part in public forum competitions, and maintain my friendships and family relationships.
Balancing these components of my life has proven difficult in the past couple of weeks, and I worry that it will only get harder. That being said, I don’t think this year will be all that bad.
Although my crammed schedule seems like it only brings stress and anxiety, it also brings something else. Being busy forces me to stay organized and not procrastinate my work. I have always struggled with procrastination and keeping things in order, but with the difficulties this year brings me, I must stay organized if I want to succeed.
I have high hopes for this year and know that through all the stress, anxiety, and overwhelming assignments, I will come out on the other end proud of my accomplishments over the year.
Lily Jones, senior, Denver Online
As a Denver online student, my first few weeks of school were exceptionally great.
I got my new senior advisor, had one-on-one meetings with all of my new teachers, and had weekly meetings as needed. Although we are not physically in the same space, I feel a huge sense of community and support.
I have a kid and a job as well, and my teachers are very generous with accommodating assignments to my needs. The hardest part about doing school with a kid has been getting the assignments done when I’m home alone.
Nemo loves to be on the go, and I never really have time to sit down and do the work with him present. When I do have the time, he ends up trying to play with my computer. I tend to do assignments at night for that reason. I don’t mind it though; I enjoy the quiet in the house and outside while I do my work.
My classes consist of psychology, algebra principles & marketing, comprehensive health, drawing/painting, film production, English, and my senior college seminars class.
As of right now my favorite class is algebra principles & marketing. My teacher is the same teacher I had when I was in financial algebra last year. She has been the biggest help in accomplishing my final semester as a senior. I feel like I have connected with her the most out of all my teachers.
I have live-learning on Mondays and Thursdays and the rest of the week is office hours. By signing up for extra help when needed, I can get one-on-one time with my teachers. This gives me more in-depth help. All my teachers show a huge amount of care and compassion.
Online school has been the best atmosphere when it comes to schooling for me. Now I am set to graduate on December 20th of this year. I’ve had lots of support with figuring out my plans for after high school.
I’ve gotten resources for programs, colleges, and internships. Online school has helped me to figure out what I really want to do after high school. This last semester has given me a new outlook on life already and I’m excited to advance and then graduate.
Sophia Y. Shon, senior, Thomas Jefferson High School
Becoming a senior is something that genuinely shocks me.
I don’t think it has really sunk in that in one year I am (hopefully) going to be going to college in another state and working towards my career. So when I walked into school on the first day of senior year, I still felt like a child walking into elementary school getting ready to have her morning meeting. Nevertheless, I was not.
My first stop of the day was the Future Center. The Future Center is a room connected to the counselor’s office where students can get guidance on what they want to do post high school. I don’t have my own college counselor, so having one that was free and accessible was important, and building a relationship with the counselors was a key goal for my first week.
Hence, I met with Ms. Webster and left the meeting feeling less scared about applying for colleges, and more confident in my ability to get into my dream school. After my meeting, I floated through my day. Each class was almost all the same, either an icebreaker or overview of the syllabus. By my 8th period, AP 3D Art, I was drained.
I love my classes, but I love the content of the actual class, not the standard recitation of the school rules.
When school ended, I met my cousin and got ready for flag football practice. We debriefed our days and went to practice feeling tired from the day, but also excited. Practice went by as it normally does—running, drills, and plays—and I went home with the homework of getting my parents to sign a sheet of paper for each class.
The following weeks have mainly been the same. I am still taking the same hard classes as when the year started, but changes in my routine have been vast. Instead of leaving my house at the same time I did last year, I am having to leave earlier, and not because of the time change (it’s only five minutes) but because of the traffic.
Although I don’t need to be at school when it starts, the sheer workload, plus college applications means that I should be at school early so I can be productive. In addition to my change in driving, I also have a change in homework load.
Don’t get me wrong, I am used to having large amounts of homework. Last year I took four AP classes (Calculus AB, Language and Composition, Physics 1 and Government), but this year’s workload has almost doubled.
I am taking two concurrent enrollment classes and three APs which means at least four hours of homework. Therefore, when I complete practice, I get home fast so I can get my homework done either before I go to sleep or prepare to wake up early and finish it the next morning.
Finally, the last change I’ve had is actually completing college applications. There are so many colleges in this world and applying to each one would probably take weeks and thousands of dollars. On the other hand, narrowing down your list of colleges is anxiety-inducing and makes me question, “What if I apply to all of these schools and still don’t get accepted into any one that I want to go to?”
Even with the crushing workload, the long and tedious drive, and the stress of college, I am so grateful to be a senior. My second week of school I had a presentation in my AP Literature class and got a shoutout from my teacher for being prepared for the presentation with notecards. My partner and I were one of the only groups in all his classes to get a 50/50. He was not grading easily and emphasized his high expectations.
My second week I also caught the ball twice during a game and have been growing in my running ability. By the third week, I am growing in my knowledge of anatomy and finding even deeper passion in medicine.
And finally, I have found new friends, reconnected with old ones, and deepened my connections with current ones, making school feel less like a burden and more of a blessing.
Jose Orenday, junior, Denver West High School
My first two weeks of school have been good for the most part. It just feels like the school has new challenges every year and I really don’t know why.
Maybe it’s because of the new freshman not quickly buying into the culture, alongside other new things like the new bell schedule and the influx of newcomer students that I don’t think our school was prepared for. I don’t know, just some observations.
This start of the school year has been harder to get used to because of problems with my schedule, and new classes. My internship at SHIFT breaks up the monotony of school, which tends to get repetitive to me and gives this drummer a different beat to move to. I need the opportunity and the income.
I don’t just go to school to learn; I also go to play music with my friends and that’s a big part of who I am. I play the drums, and my friends play the piano and guitar.
Near the beginning of the summer, I bought a drum set with the money I got from my internship, and I’ve been playing every day since. I don’t just want to play for fun, but I hope to play live or produce music one day and playing with my friends has gotten me closer to my dreams.
I haven’t just been on my drums when I’m not in school. Being a SHIFT Fellow at FaithBridge has kept me busy. I had the opportunity to give a three-minute speech at public comment to the superintendent and the board of directors of Denver Public Schools. It was scary.
I was nervous, but it was nice to talk since I don’t really get to do a lot of stuff like that and being a SHIFT Fellow has given me a big opportunity to do things I didn’t imagine myself doing.
Our school had a lockdown. It happened Thursday, August 29th. When the lockdown happened, we didn’t know if it was a real situation or a drill. Seems awkward to me. I don’t think that we take them as seriously as we should. It’s also crazy that we have to do them.
Like, why aren’t we safe in school? After a little bit, I started to hear stuff from people in my school like that there was a gun involved. We never get told what happened. That’s a problem.
For the last year or so my classmates and I have had to go through lockdowns because of guns, which slow down our learning and if we want any of these problems fixed, we will need our youth to be in school learning not scared of going to school.
To be honest, students are starting to get used to hearing about some kids with a gun or a shooting near West which is something kids shouldn’t be “used to.” A lot to think about and we just started back.
Clara Nogales, senior, South High School
My first few weeks were definitely different. They added new policies for phones, hallway, bathroom and attendance.
I agree with most policies because I can understand how phones might distract someone from learning, but my school is trying to have only five people go to the bathroom in each hallway. There are four hallways in my school which means 20 people max.
South High School has 2,000 kids. That is 1% of kids going to the bathroom at a time. That is ridiculous to me. I completely disagree that limiting to only five kids is the answer.
The attendance policy is somewhat understandable. I’m supposed to have a 93% or higher to graduate and I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to achieve this, but in the past years I’ve never had a percentage higher than 90, so this will be somewhat of a challenge for me.
School has been pretty great. I love my schedule and since I’m a senior I get two off-periods and benefits like off-campus lunch; and I get to invite people from other schools to events.
My last football game was also pretty fun, but I noticed how heavy security at school events is and it just makes me sad. All the security just reminds me that there are crazy people out there who would actually bring a gun to a game, but it does make me feel safer, so I’m thankful my school added that.
I have the privilege to sign up to as many college classes as I want and this year. I signed up for four. This semester I have three and next semester I have one.
I’m taking CE creative writing, CE sociology and CE statistics. I am very excited that I’ll get credit early and possibly won’t have to take English and math in college since my major will be psychology.
My social life is pretty neutral; I miss my friends that graduated the most. Although I’m counting down the hours to walk across that stage, I can’t believe I’m finally a senior. I feel so old yet I’m still so young.
I can’t wait to see how this year will unfold and I’m excited. I’m also really sad this is my last year dancing, my last homecoming and my last prom. I will miss the dance team with my whole heart.
Besides that, I haven’t experienced any changes at school or any different experiences. I hope this will be a very strong academic year for me and that I’ll ace all my college classes.
