Waking Up In Middle School

Imagine getting to wake up later every Monday! Waking up early on Monday's after the weekend is really hard on students, it would be way better Getting up early is hard because most students are normally super tired in the morning and don't want to get up so early. You would not be so crabby every morning now! Since we would have a late start this wouldn't happen anymore. This is something both teachers and students should get to have every Monday. This is why we need to have a late start Monday at Middle School South. There are many things to consider about having a later start. let's start out with benefits, than problems, next is solving problems, and last is other schools.

There are many benefits on having a late start and on Monday. First, it will improve students test scores, according to KQED website “Studies have shown that middle and high school students with adequate amounts of sleep, 8-10 hours, have better test scores.” This helps with students grades, because in most classes what you get on your test is more than 50% of your grade.Next, It will help students and teachers be more engaged, this quote was from Magna website,

“engaged and motivated students is due to having later starts.” Teachers and students will be more engaged because, they will get to sleep later and better.Finally, students will get there full eight hours of sleep they need, this example was from the Daily Record website."Even a start time of 8:35 a.m. allows 57-60 percent of students to get eight or more hours of sleep, which is an important health benefit for a majority of students." This benefit shows that students will get the full 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep every night and will be more active and happy during the day and not cranky. After surveying 50 people “98% of the students wanted to have a later start.” This shows that a high percentage of kids at our school would like to have a late start.

There are some problems into having a late start on Monday. First, school bus schedule will have to be changed, and a quote from Fox News“school buses were running an hour later.” Even though this is a problem we can solve this by rearranging the bus schedule for all grade level schools in the district. Next, school activities will start and end later, an example from Nea Today, “School activities will be pushed back if schools would still continue to have late starts.” We can solve this problem by either shortening after school activities or having some clubs start in the morning if the teachers running the school activity don't want to stay after school so late. Finally, school will end later, one last quote from Smithsonian Magazine “Middle school’s would end at approximately 3:30 if school were to start at 8:20.” This problem is harder to solve, so we would just have to deal with ending.

There are some problems that having a later start would solve.

First, students grades will be better a quote from academic performances, “8:30 a.m. start time, there has been a 53 percent drop in the number of failing grades, and the number of days students were suspended for disciplinary reasons dropped from 166 to 19.” This shows that students grades have been improving since they have had a late start. Next, teachers and students can focus better, this example was from Nea Today, “Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” This quote is saying that if students and teachers were to go to bed at the same time as they normally would and got to wake up later that they would be focused and get a better job in the future. Finally, students won't be as tired during there morning

periods.

Other schools in our conference have later starts then us. First, Grayslake Middle School. Second, Matthews Middle School. Third, Wacounda Middle School. Finally, both of Barrington’s Middle Schools, according to the Barrington school district’s website they stated “School start times will be getting pushed back: Middle School will start at 9:00…” this shows that schools in our conference are all getting pushed back, we should match other schools in our conference because, for after school games will have to start way later, when we play the schools with later starts and students won't get home until around 6:00 and they will be late to there out of school activities.

In conclusion, we need to have a later start on Monday at Middle School South. As stated previously, middle school students who get 8-10 hours of sleep get better test scores and grades. We have talked about the benefits, problems, solving problems, and other schools, I hope this has made you consider having a later start for Middle School South!