<p>Hey guys, I am from AK. My school (about 2000 kids) allows as many as -- that I know of -- 4 free periods. Meaning a period where student either go to library and do work or just go home.</p>
<p>I have a couple graduating buddies that basically only comes in for the afternoon for about an hour and go home. </p>
<p>I am moving to another town so the policy might going to be different.</p>
<p>How does free period go in your school? Your input is welcomed =)</p>
<p>i wish we had those but my school is weird. the idea of it sounds nice though...</p>
<p>It's interesting that this idea seems so foreign to some people</p>
<p>Since I am juggling between graduating early and going abroad, free periods can be definitely my back up choice</p>
<p>We have free periods at my school. For freshmen and sophomores, one of their free periods has to be daytime study hall and juniors have to have a daytime study hall during fall term, but if they have good grades then after fall they don't have daytime study hall. You can do what you want with your free periods if you stay on campus...it's supposed to be a senior privilege that seniors can go off campus during their free periods, but we didn't get senior privileges this year. You can leave early if you have last period off (but there's not much point because of sports...everyone has to participate in sports) but you can't come late because we have to check in by eight o'clock (It's a boarding school thing).</p>
<p>Yep, we have 'em, and they're wonderful. As many as you happen to have in your schedule in a given semester...I have a friend who has 4-hour lunches because of them. During them, you're allowed to chill in school, in the library, or go out. It's pretty sweet.</p>
<p>I have a free period 8th period. Lately I've been using that time to study for AP exams in the Library.</p>
<p>Yeah, we have free periods here as well. The most anyone can have in normal circumstances is three, but most people only take one or two.</p>
<p>No free periods at my school. Or 'study hall' either.</p>
<p>My school has free periods in which you are in the library or cafeteria, or if you're a senior and you're last class is over, you can go home.</p>
<p>All seniors are assigned frees where there's a blank. Everyone else has study halls ("studies") but can get frees with the top 2 academic honors.</p>
<p>I think the most anyone can have would be 4, as a senior. I have three in one day, but then there are two days where I have no free periods due to other classes. Most people have one free or study a day.</p>
<p>We are on a block schedule and the school offers plenty of AP/IB courses, so free periods are practically unheard of and strongly discouraged by GCs.</p>
<p>At my school, students are allowed two free periods per day, but many often end up with more than that. After those two, students must dedicate remaining free periods to such things as being teacher aids, office workers, library workers, or pick up an independent class. Nearly everyone has at least one free period a day; a few do not. It's really difficult to fill every period because the course offerings at my school are not very diverse.</p>
<p>Our scheduling/class requirement system is stupidly complicated. It takes about two months to explain it to students. Basically, it's based on "lines" of classes, so Chem B is scheduled at the same time as Music A is scheduled at the same time as Modern History A etc. so obviously you can only choose one class on each line. Extension subjects are then scheduled outside normal class times (lunchtimes, after school etc.) and but count as one line of units. You have to choose a subject on at least five lines, including an English class (which all run at the same time). If you don't have a class scheduled on that line then you get a free. One guy in my grade was only taking ten units all year so there were about three or four days per fortnight where he ended up only having two periods out of six as actual classes. Another guy had only one class on a particular day but two periods of mandatory sport.</p>
<p>Ugh, I hated our system.</p>
<p>Hey, I'm from AK too, Anchorage. Many many kids in my school have empty periods also. I have a free 1st period. Most high school seniors have at least one empty period (normally free 1st or last-6th). A few only take 2 or 3 classes and then work afterwards. As long as you (will) have all the credits you need, the counselors are very open to letting you have a free period whenever you would like. During free periods you can either stay in the library, leave, or get permission from a teacher to stay in their class. There are no study halls for us, except for 9th graders in the freshmen academy (they are required to take a period of "study/life skills.")</p>
<p>No free periods or study hall at my school. My friends were thinking about how nice it would've been to have a nap period, though...</p>
<p>No free periods at my school, alas. We don't have study hall, either, and we have a 20-minute Homeroom only when the school needs to pass things out to the student body or something. We CAN have "Directed Study" if we're identified as being "Talented and Gifted," but while we can do as we like as long as we meet the goals we plan at the beginning of the year, we can't leave campus. I used the time to take an online class. (I have it sixth period this year, and we have an awesome sub overseeing us who lets us leave five minutes early or so so that we can beat the rush out of school.)</p>
<p>There are also work-study programs and an internship program that some kids use to leave early. I had Internship last year--I miss being able to leave early. Lots of seniors do one or the other, especially if they don't want to take classes. </p>
<p>I'm in Georgia, by the way.</p>
<p>My school lets you take one free period a year, but it's at the expense of an academic class. You have to have 25 credits to graduate, and there are 28 credits throughout high school. That means that you can only take a free period three out of your four years, because on fine arts credit is needed to graduate. Our principal warns us not to take a study hall freshman year (I'm a freshman), but people still do. To me, it's like, "Why would you take a study hall the least-academically challenging year of high school?" My friend, for example, took two semesters of study hall this year. That was stupid, because now she has boxed herself into a schedule. </p>
<p>Oh, by the way, for freshman and sophmores- it's a monitered study hall.
For juniors and seniors, it's a free period and you can do whatever you want.</p>
<p>Only seniors with a cum overall weighted 3.5 GPA or above can take a free period, either 1st or 7th. It can be used as a study hall or just a break during the day (we rotate our last three periods) or we can arrive late/leave early. Most seniors spent at least part of the time the first half of the year at the college office finishing GO forms, scholarships, getting transcripts off, proofing essays ect... things were getting really hectic when some of the first deadlines came around. The first application is always the hardest!</p>
<p>I love when people say "I dont have any study halls this year because I'm taking so many classes!"</p>
<p>I've had at least 2 study halls every year since 9th grade, and 6 this year. major LULZ.</p>
<p>We have 8 periods in a day and a person must have a minimum of 5 classes a day to be considered full-time.</p>
<p>I've had 3 off hours all this year and all of last year.</p>
<p>(Normally this doesn't happen though, but our school district has 9th grade in junior high and not high school, so no one in 9th grade had an off hour. Also, when I was in 10th grade I went to a block system school where I never had an off hour and therefore accumulated more hours than if I went to a traditional 8 period system school. It definitely paid off when I transferred.)</p>
<p>We have free periods at my school. One needs to sign up for at least 26 class periods a week, so 6 classes generally, or 5 classes, one of them having a double lab period. People usually have a study hall or lunch during their free period, but they can sign up to leave school to do something educational or to work during their free period(s).</p>