Four years of high school may seem like a long time, but the time actually goes by really fast. Depending on the classes that you take, it may seem like your day is dragging. You might be only taking classes so you
can get all the credits you need to graduate. There are other ways that you can receive the credits you need by taking some of the unique courses that GCHS has to offer. These unique courses aren’t always going to be electives, but the classes are also within some of the core departments.

However, if not enough students sign up to take these unique classes, the class might be cut for the year or only run one period a day, which limits the number of students whocan fit it in their schedule.

“A singleton is a class that only runs once…so it is more challenging to schedule,” said Lori Mitchell, counseling department chair.

Unique classes affected by this are early childhood and development, small engines, web development, and a bunch of other classes that may interest you. More of these classes can be found on the school website and in the 2019-2020 registration guide. New classes are always added to the course guide.

“To create a new course is a two year process of research, piloting and curricular development. The department chairs from North and Central together will make a proposal for a new course in their department. Once it is approved by administration and the board of education, they work with teachers over the next two years to ensure that the cur- riculum is developed and teachers receive the professional development needed for students to be successful,” Barb Georges, Associate Principal for Curriculum and Instruction.

For example, yearbook used to be a really small class that was only available to seniors, but it was then decided to make it an entire school yearbook class. With this decision, yearbook was made into a biggerclass. For seniors specifically, they are ableto take yearbook in replacement for their 4th year English credit.

Mobile makers is also a new class this year that revolves around technology and learning how to develop apps that would be available to use on your phones.

“First of all [mobile makers] is a honors level course… but that isn’t a reason to take it, a reason to take it… you need an applied arts credit, but it’s a great class to be able to problem solve… you can do it with no coding background because we go through the basics of coding but if you like a challenge, you
like problem solving, you’re good at working collaboratively,” said Meghan Lynn, who teaches mobile makers.

“There are many unique 4 year paths for students interested in World Languages, Art, Music, Technology, Culinary, PLTW, Woods/ Metals. etc. These are all in addition to the electives offered in our core departments,” said Georges

Georges also mentions that D127 wants their students to pursue their passions and
to personalize their schedule with the career path they want to take.