By Molly Mueller (@mollykmueller_)
The annual course recommendation day is Friday, November 20 and for the first time Prospect is completing the process paper free. A complete list of classes available, step-by-step instructions and the downloadable electives sheet is available through the class of 2017, class of 2018 and class of 2019 Schoology pages. Read through for an interview with Social Science and World Language Division Head Gary Judson on what to expect with the upcoming changes.
 
Q: How is the process changing from last year to this year?
A: Well not only are teachers recommending online, but then students are going to go online and choose their classes ahead of time. That’s going to give students an opportunity to think about a little bit more, to go in and actually choose what classes they want.
 
Q: What system is Prospect using to do course recommendation day?
A: We’re doing this through Infinite Campus. The challenging part is that for all your core classes, [students are] going to go through and choose from a menu. However for any elective classes, students are going to have a document sent out through Schoology and they’ll upload it to Notability. It will be similar to what we did in the past and teachers will sign off on electives that students want to take and then students are going to upload those back into Schoology [in order to] do it all paperless.
 
Q: For core classes, are students choosing the class they want to take or is it just based on teacher recommendations?
A: Teachers will recommend and then, hopefully, the teacher had a discussion with the student and they are on the same page, but if the student kind of changes their mind and maybe wants to take an AP class or doesn’t want to take an AP class, they can make the selection themselves now too. Then they can have that discussion with their counselor of, ‘ok which class is going to be best for me.’
 
Q: Why are these changes being made this year?
A: We’re one of the schools kind of piloting this and a number of other schools in the area have gone to doing it online so I guess its taking advantage of the technology that we have. We’ll see how it works.