How do buddies manage AP classes

When Gregorio Lince first entered buddies, he was hoping to be with his friends and mostly help middle schoolers develop into more responsible people. He didn’t expect buddies to interfere too much with his regular schedule until he had AP Calculus first block and was so scared of getting behind that he missed buddies in order to go to class.

Buddies is currently in its seventh year and many new changes have been made. Since it first started buddies has incremented almost exponentially in staff members; this helps because every class can have three to five buddies and it directly allows other buddies to miss one block to go to any important class such as an AP.

The development

Since buddies was created back in 2011, it has gone through various changes to provide the middle schoolers with the most optimal help. There is no doubt that coming into buddies compromises class time and in numerous cases, it implies absence  from AP classes. The students are responsible for making up for everything missed.

¨I am currently in 3 AP classes this year and all of them I have at least once a week for the first block,¨ commented TCS eleventh grade student Miguel Maldonado. ” Participating in Buddies makes me sacrifice some of my free time to make up any work missed from that day at first block.”

Academic Interference

“Joining buddies directly affects my academic development because I am taking 3 APs and all three I have the first block,” said Lince.

Many students have missed out on the experience of being a buddy, mostly because it compromises their academic time and with already a lot of workload from high school add to this the makeup work for the missed first block four to five times a week.

“I had no time to submit the video or go to the preparation camp because of the workload from my classes, especially the AP,” said TCS eleventh grade student Andrew Kim who last year participated in buddies but not this year. “To join and remain in buddies is difficult because it requires you to sacrifice your own personal time to make up homework, tests, lessons and more than you will normally do during class time.”

AP Solution

The buddies program recognizes very well the struggle of not attending AP classes. To avoid major problems buddies has highly pliable schedules. If any students require missing one or two buddies sessions it’s perfectly fine as long as is told beforehand to the correspondent supervisor and to its fellow buddies.

“Buddies has a great commitment to their academic process,” Ana Garcia one of the people in charge of buddies said. “Generally to recoup anything missed they talk to their teacher or their classmates to know what was done and if needed they can go during lunch. As a last resource, they can attend their first block and miss one of the sessions.”

“Buddies has a rather flexible schedule,” Lince commented. “Sometimes I have to priorities my academic responsibilities.”

Every buddie has to priorities its academic responsibilities that is why every group of buddies is formed between three to five people per group. With so many buddies any of them can miss one session due to AP classes and still have numerous companions to fill in for him. Participating in buddies might challenge the person academically and force them to manage their time with more responsibility.

“It’s worth it,” said Maldonado, “I was really considering not joining this year because of AP classes but once I did there was no regret.”