By Emma ’28
Here at Harvard-Westlake, students will commonly meet with their teachers to check on their progress and grades and to ask and receive help on anything from homework assignments to retaking assessments to simply working alongside their teacher. This is a great way to improve understanding of subjects. Because Harvard-Westlake students’ classes don’t meet daily, they have free time on campus to meet with their teachers. Not only are there many large department offices on campus for teachers, which students may visit when one of their classes does not meet, but students may also meet with teachers in their respective classrooms. They can also visit the teacher in class if the teacher permits them to do so.
Teacher meetings are a great way to ask questions unanswered in class and find reassurance by talking with teachers personally. Aside from being an academic option, meeting with teachers is also a way to manage stress levels and connect with their teachers outside of class. Doing so fosters a sense of community within Harvard-Westlake. Department offices are also meant to provide students with engaging activities to do when they have time. During Halloween, students dressed in costume may walk around the department offices and get candy from their teachers. Additionally, math offices will occasionally contain varying puzzles for students to work on during free time and for fun, and inside the science department room lives a beloved pet snake.
Students can also meet with their grade’s deans, whose offices are surrounded by respective lounges for each grade level. In these areas, students may talk, have fun, and do their homework surrounded by their friends, and students are always able to talk to their deans about anything they would like to. The spaces are meant to cultivate relationships between students and faculty and serve as safe spaces for students during their school hours.
Ultimately, meeting with teachers is only ever a beneficial thing to do, even if the student is doing well. It is so important at Harvard-Westlake for students to feel great about learning and growing in class and having a good relationship with their teachers is crucial to doing so.
