For the 2018-2019 school year at Pennridge High School, there has been a change to the academic schedule. On every day one of the six day cycle, a new period has been added in between first and second . It’s called RAMS time. The new RAMS schedule is where time is alloted for students to choose how they spend their time for the 45-minute session. If they need to make up work that they missed, they can request to go to that teacher for the period. If a student just wants to go to a study hall, they can see what teacher is advising a study hall for the period and request to go in there. Teachers can also request students if necessary. There are three types of days we have for RAMS Time. The one we have seen most of this year is the scholastic day. This is where a student can request any teacher that they have a class with to go to their room, and vice versa, to get extra help or to just do work. The second type is the activity day and on this day students meet with their clubs and have other fun things to do. There are a lot more options for this day. The final type of day is when we go to homeroom and take care of things from guidance or for your specific grade level. This type of homeroom can happen on day six on the calendar, not just on day one. According to Mrs. West, Pennridge “Started planning this three years ago by looking at neighboring schools who had similar programs”. I for one love this new experiment our school tried. As a student athlete, I have always struggled to find a good way to balance my school work with sports. It was easier to handle when I would only be gone for two hours, including travel time, but now I am gone for at least five hours per practice and I practice four nights a week. This time is very important to me because when I can, I go to study halls to work on homework which helps lighten my load a little for the day/week. At the end of the year, some of the staff is planning to evaluate how they thought the RAMS schedule worked out for the year. Hopefully, they will allow students to give feedback on ways they think the day can improve. Sean Yoder, another student athlete, also loves the schedule. When asked what changes could be made to make this even more beneficial he said “We should try to make them more often and not just on one day out of the cycle.” I agree with him on this. Having one day is great but I think more students would want to have at least another day where they can get time to start, finish, or make up work.