By Randy Nelson
Arena scheduling has come to Mini-School. Even now, the words could draw some blank looks from students if they were asked to explain them. Essentially, arena scheduling is allowing the students to choose their Mini-School classes and teachers in the order they want. A class size limit of 20-27 students imposed on classroom offerings and 35-40 on recreation offerings.
This new approach has had its share of frustrations due to the availability of the gym space at different hours, but as usual, MSP flexibility has worked well within and around the mainstream classes. Reasons behind the experiment were to allow students greater freedom in decision-making, encourage more involvement in recreation classes, and provide more alternatives for students within the morning schedule. The most measurable area on the success of the program has been in recreation where over twenty students are involving themselves in floor hockey and close to forty participating in volleyball.