Every year. The same stressful decision. The same issues. The feeling of constant worry. Scheduling for next year classes has become a center of teen stress and anxiety each year, ready to bite us in the butt. But a lot of these issues are consistent, problematic and never solved nor figured out. Students reaching out to counselors consistently, have managed to create a list of failed scheduling sessions and it keeps growing. Holes in schedules, class availability, and internet insufficiency becomes the main complaint of many students as they think about the up and coming year. 

Schools taking the highway in internet and technological exploration come across many issues that make their reliance on the modern way sway as students bring up glitching and restricted access. With school computers, often students have trouble accessing Canvas, Skyward, and Gmail, making emailing counselors, getting into the student’s class module, and accessing arena scheduling difficult and a complete nuisance to students and faculty. With Arena Scheduling, grades are placed on a three day scheduling time slot, seniors taking the first week. With these grade level weeks, and the limited slot amount, it’s chaos with the internet. With so many people accessing the same app, trying to do the same thing, essentially the sight could crash and with it comes a disadvantage to students hoping to get into limited class space before others. 

Although Arena Scheduling allows for students to create their ideal schedules, sometimes the issues experienced take away from the enjoyment. Students having holes- which are blank slots in their schedules- is one of the most common issues surrounding Arena Scheduling. Technically, it is a student’s fault if they do not select the correct number of courses during course selection. It is their responsibility to fulfill a complete, 8 period schedule, as well as 4 alternate courses. During course selection, a student may need to select Panther Academy as part of their schedule for the upcoming school year. However, students do not have access to select the class, only counselors have the ability to.

Many students plan out their schedules in advance to arena scheduling. They select classes for certain periods to have classes with their friends and to be prepared ahead of time. The anxiousness that comes with logging into Skyward as soon as scheduling opens is a terrible feeling. Students rush as quickly as possible to lock in classes and complete their schedules. Oftentimes, because other students are faster, the class period someone wished for becomes unavailable. The student then has to rearrange their entire schedule because they frankly weren’t quick enough.

Arena scheduling, though seen by many students as a time to pick wanted classes with the people they choose, has become a center for emotional distress and inconveniences. While scheduling every year is a race for students, it can be annoying and infuriating knowing that there is a very possible outcome of not getting the wanted class nor being with friends for the next year. Most students are advised to expect the issues and aggravating situations before stepping into the school on scheduling day ready to plan out a year that might not work out.