By Wilson ’24
Managing your time at Harvard-Westlake is extremely crucial to your success. You’ve probably heard that a lot, especially from student ambassadors like us. You’ve been told to make use of the time you have so your nights aren’t jam-packed with extracurriculars and homework. You’ve been told to take the amazing independence that Harvard-Westlake provides its students during their free periods and use it to your advantage. To do your homework and not play videogames in the back corners of the library alcoves. But there is another skill that is equally important to managing your time. It is also very necessary to your success at Harvard Westlake. It can decide whether you are late or early to class, your reputation amongst your teachers, and the weight of your backpack during the day (because no one wants to become The Hunchback of Harvard-Westlake). It is extremely important and useful to master. It is knowing when to visit your locker during your day, and managing your location on campus.
Assuming you, the prospective student reading this, are coming in from 7th grade, your locker location is on the second floor of Hazy, by the 7th-grade lounge. Around the 7th grade lockers, there are the English, science, history, math, and world language offices, as well as the psychologist’s office and the nurse and other administration offices too. There are also English, math, and some elective classes held there. My recommendation for when to visit your locker for 7th graders is during English. Most, if not all English classes are near the 7th-grade lounge, so that’s the perfect time to visit.
Next would be 8th grade, and their lockers are on the second floor of Wang Hall. Around these lockers is the 8th-grade lounge, as well as most history, Spanish, and visual arts classrooms. This area provides a lot of options to visit because all students must have a class in Wang, and the classrooms are all very close together. So, I would recommend visiting your locker during one of the classes listed above – your choice.
Finally, 9th grade. Although I didn’t get to live 9th grade in person, I had it all mapped out in 8th grade. The 9th-grade lockers are near the cafeteria, and near the Westlake stairs which takes you up to the second floor of Hazy (closer to the 7th-grade lockers). 9th grade has the most secluded lockers, so here I would recommend to any incoming 9th graders to go to your locker during lunch or break (which you can do for any grade but for 9th grade is especially convenient). You could also visit on the way to math if your math class is on the first floor of Hazy. There is a hallway that takes you straight to the first-floor classes from the 9th-grade lockers.
Coming from a current 9th-grade student who had 2 years of locker managing experience (should have been 3 of course), you should definitely plan out your visits to lighten the load of your backpack and divide your day by your locker visits. I am proud to say in 8th grade at one point in the day I had only 2 binders in my bag and I could sprint across the campus if I wanted to, feeling light and free. But sadly in 7th grade, I was struggling because the location of my classes in relation to the lockers was very inconvenient for my schedule. That’s the thing: sometimes you have to have to carry all your books because your classes are on the same side of the campus, which is the side furthest away from your grade’s locker area. So managing your location is different for different students. For some, though, their classes are in perfect relation with their lockers. For example, here was my 8th-grade class schedule:
Science
English
Break
Programming
Debate
Math
PE
Lunch
Spanish
History
This schedule was amazing for me. My first divide was from science to lunch (I know it sounds long but bear with me). The second was from lunch to history. I visited my locker at the beginning of the day and PE. The first divide might seem like a lot, but in reality it is just science, English, and math binders in my backpack because debate and programming require nothing but my computer, which I bring with me the whole day. I visited my locker on the way back from PE (I leave my backpack at the lockers on the way to PE so it’s there when I get back).Then it’s just Spanish and history binders afterward. All of my classes after lunch were in Wang. That is just how I managed my schedule. Everyone is different, and so are their schedules. Some people would rather run during passing period to get to their locker than use their lunch period to visit. So mastering your own schedule might take a little bit, but in the end it is a very important skill to have.
