Ethan Zabar
STAFF WRITER
After the Andover High School senior class departs from the school, teachers of upperclassmen and mixed grade classes have all sorts of plans for their remaining students.
After the AHS senior class graduation on June 6, AP Psychology teacher Katy Vives thinks the rest of the year will be relaxed but engaging. “It’s hard to hold a ‘formal’ class with only a handful of students,” Vives said. “It’s a great opportunity to connect with the remaining students and get to know more about their interests in or out of school. Some nature walks are also a great way to hold class discussions.” Vives also stated that students left over after seniors graduate will have more of an opportunity to speak up and be heard in class.
Vives stated that in order to keep her AP Psychology class productive but enjoyable, she will give her students some elbow room to look forward to. “As I’ll only have a handful of students left, I’m going to allow them to pursue a topic of their choosing to investigate further or perhaps to create their own psychological experiment within the school,” Vives said. “An activity that could be fun for students, and myself, would be to conduct a film study that looks at movies that include psychological concepts, but not overtly so. Choosing a topic from the class that held interest for them, students could find a film that highlights or shows an application of that concept woven throughout the movie.”
AP classes aren’t the only classes where leftover students should be excited, though. Physics teacher Michael Wall spoke on his plans for the final weeks of school after the seniors graduate. “Once the seniors have finished with their academics there will still be several juniors in my physics classes,” Wall stated. “At this time of the year, we will focus on one or two topics in a bit more detail and I tend to take a more hands-off approach, and I don’t want to give too much away yet, but I do have a project in mind. There is also the potential for some bonus points, so the juniors that do a good, thorough job, should have a nice way to end the year with a high grade in physics.”
Wall also seemed confident that classes would still end on a high note when summer vacation comes around, even with the seniors gone. “The end of the year is a good time for being in school and it goes by very quickly for both students and teachers,” he said. “There is an expectation of summer vacation, but because the days are longer and warmer, and life has again bloomed all around us, the mood is cheerier. The juniors are now the oldest students in the building and the notion of being the school leaders is beginning to settle in for them. Even though it’s the end of the school year it’s really the time of new beginnings for them…a perfect theme for spring!”
As both Wall and Vives said, there’s plenty of room for fun in the last few weeks of school, even with the seniors off and graduating. AHS junior Joey Martellucci spoke on his experiences in his mixed grade class from last year. “I took Music Production last semester of last year, and I barely even noticed the seniors were gone, to be honest,” Martellucci said. “That class was always very fun, so our teacher made sure we were busy and engaged even once the seniors graduated. The class was also more relaxed, although the topics we covered in class stayed the same.” Martellucci went on to express his excitement for the last few weeks of school in his Music Theory class this year.
