Spare
My second semester of the year (and last semester ever of high school!) is now well underway. I have my first calculus test tomorrow, so procrastinating by blogging is my natural response. It seems that I only feel like writing when I’m supposed to be doing something else!
Anyways, my new favourite part of school is my spare. Instead of taking a full course load, I’ve filled a spot with a free period. I can basically do whatever I want for 75 minutes. I can’t believe I haven’t taken spares before; they’re great!
Not only do I have about 25% less work (3 classes instead of 4), I also have more time to do my schoolwork… Okay, who am I kidding. I’m not very productive and nothing gets done.
A spare means I can have an extended lunch or go home early (depending on odd/even days in our school schedule), but for the most part I’ve been going to the library. I have a few friends with spare at the same time as me, so it’s pretty fun to hang out in the back corner of the library (where we can be loud-ish without the librarian giving us dirty looks).
During spare, I’ve been reading the newspaper every day and keeping up with Time, Macleans, and Psychology Today (magazines). It’s kind of interesting that by not taking a class I’m becoming so much more educated. ;)
I’ve also tried to sleep during spare, but my so-called friends always wake me up with some trivial interruption, so I’ve given up on that.
Have you ever had a free period? They’re awesome, right?
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My last semester of my senior year of high school, I did the same thing. And I planned it out so that my last class was actually my free period, so I always went home early. But the very best part? I ended up picking up a TA job for the class period before. The teacher that I TA’ed for hardly ever had any work for me to do, so he always said I could just go, which meant I got to go home EVEN EARLIER! This was my last semester schedule:
1st period: Bowling
2nd period: AP English
Lunch
3rd period: TA
4th period: Free
So usually, I just left school at 11am after English. It was WONDERFUL!!! Live it up!!!
Kaylee, I don’t know if I’ve said this, but I think we’re the same person. Except living in different parts of the world. Down to the fact that I also have a calculus test tomorrow. :|
But, to answer your question, spares are great! :D
We never had any concept of ‘spares’ in our school. The only time we got a free period was if the teacher was absent :P Or by bunking a class [risky btw] =P
On the other hand, I seem to have been on a spare for the past year so … :)
I loved free periods! I specifically planned for my senior year in high school, so that the last periods of each day was my free time for goofing off with my friends way before school was even over.
But then I had this crazy notion to work at my job for a couple of hours, and the optional ‘class’ for the school newspaper. I also ended up (l)earning more than when in class, haha. Now that I think about it, it’s good preparation for college when time management is key. :)
I loved free periods, I started out by doing homework but then took to reading and finally spent a lot of time working on technical stuff for the staff which was fun. I remember having a couple of periods where I could go home early, my friends used to moan at me that I shouldn’t because school wasn’t officially over but they were just jealous.
I am jealous of your free period. School is kind of overwhelming right now, and I could definitely use a break.
I plan to take one in grade 12. I want to take 7 courses so I have a backup in case I bomb on one (top 6 courses and everything). I can always drop one if it’s too much.
Plus, my spare(s) would be for the whole year since I’m not semestered.
Free periods are AMAZING! I’m in Year 12 at the moment and I’m doing it over two years to preserve my sanity—which means that at the moment, I have about 20 free periods a week (our periods are 40 minutes long, and there are eight in a day). Unfortunately I also spend a fair amount of time after and before school in class, since I’m doing two off-line extension subjects, but at the moment I’m working on being more productive and getting the majority of my work done in my frees, so that I can do whatever I like once I get home!
Also, I lovelovelove this here ‘live preview’ thing…it makes me want to keep typing, and typing, and typing, and typing…
Only three classes?! My goodness, I took six year-long classes in high school my senior year!
I had some free time off during my class schedules in Polytechnic. We don’t exactly count our classes by periods but anyway, I still love the free time we have. We sit around in an empty corner of the school, work on our tutorials, chit chat and gossip about the latest happenings around us. It’s a good time to catch up with each other or go out for lunch. There’s just not enough time to talk during lectures and tutorials. The free time is perfect and most students love it! Those who live near the school go home for a nap before coming back. :P
I can’t take a spare otherwise I’m no longer OP eligible…and that means I can’t attend uni so there is no way on this planet I can take a spare :( Unless I drop Multimedia which I am just NOT willing to do since its like my bludge class anyway bahaha.
Glad you’re enjoying your spare – my mates have spares and absolutely love them.
I’ve never had a free period :( Hopefully I’ll be getting quite a few next year though.
I’m the same as you. I always did the most blogging when I was supposed to be doing something else.
Spare periods are very awesome. I think we were forced to have some when I was in high school. I know I had at least one in both grade 11 and 12. They are a great time to get some homework done, but mostly mine were spent playing card games with my friends in the cafeteria.
I never had a free period in high school, mostly because it’s not offered in Canada. I would have loved that though, considering there were many classes I could have easily done without.
It’s funny because my friends and I also have a couple of spots in the back of the library where we like to fool around and pretend we’re doing work. It’s a college library, so it’s pretty huge, meaning that it’s easy to stay under the librarian’s radar.
I had two spares in my senior year in high school and I loved it because all my girlfriends had the same spare block too (we switched our schedules around in the beginning of the year). It was soo much fun except not much studying got done with all the girls being together. =P
I have six classes a day, and they’re 55 minutes long. I would hate having 75 minute classes! But a 75 minute spare/study would be great. I only have one every two days D:
Oh the beautiful free period sighs
In England we have loads of them..
..I get 9 hours of free period a week :D
but like you said its not a very productive 9 hours :p