Image from the 5-Star System
During the individual class assemblies at the start of this school year, the news was revealed that instead of keeping TeachMore, the program most Huskies have used since middle school, Washington High School was now going to use a new app called 5-Star to manage Flextime appointments. The announcement was met with little to no reaction at first; as people explored the program in Clever, they realized it was incredibly similar in terms of technicality and offered extra functions not available on TeachMore.
Many saw this as an improvement. “I’d say there’s more stuff in this app than there was in Teach More,” says junior Aanya Gautam. “I don’t have to carry my ID around, so there’s that. And then there’s also the scanning barcode option, which I think is kind of nice. You don’t have to wait in line and sign in. But it’s negligible differences. They’re not that great of an advantage.”
In fact, some of these changes are proving to be disadvantages. Students quickly observed that although 5-Star provides more features, they limit student choice and have an absence of flexibility. For example, when going to use the bathroom, students must sign-out electronically on 5-Star before getting six minutes from the system to finish their business and return. When asked about this aspect, Gautam responded, “I think it is kind of stupid because what if I have an emergency in the bathroom and it takes longer than six minutes? It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
When signing up for appointments, students have noticed that they can now only check into classes they are attending this year. However, a few other non-assigned teachers also show up as options. “It’s weird that a bunch of random teachers you don’t have show up as options when you’re signing up, sometimes teachers you’ve never even had,” explained junior Rhea Muthyala. Along with the confusing nature of choosing teachers comes the unreliability of using the app-provided barcode to sign into Flextime. “I tried to use it in Mr. Kim’s Flex but it didn’t work so I just used my ID,” said Rhea.
However, it’s not only students dealing with issues when it comes to the implementation of 5-Star. While most WHS educators share a feeling of neutrality when it comes to the new program, some have their fair share of holdups. Mr. Bortz, who teaches Biology and AP Environmental Science, shared how the constant change in school applications puts a weight on him and many other faculty members. “There’s nothing wrong with 5-star,” stresses Mr. Bortz, “but I don’t like it because things keep changing and that just puts another burden on the teachers to learn another thing.” In lieu of focusing on helping kids with their work during Flextime, he has to spend time making sure 5-Star functions properly during one of the most hectic and stressful times of the school year.
Generally, the changes made by switching to 5-Star seem to be minimal. As Mr. Bortz puts it very simply, “It’s like 99% the same. But all the buttons are in a different place.”
Sayana Settipalli, a junior at Washington High School, was born and raised in India before moving to Fremont in 2015. This is her first year at The Hatchet and she plans on writing about various topics, ranging from political science to digital media literacy. In school, she’s currently acting as Assistant Speech Captain in WHS Speech and Debate. Outside of school, she’s a committed member of both the Tri-City Action Team in Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action and Fremont Debate Academy. In her free time, Sayana enjoys reading and writing poetry, hanging out with her friends, creating graphic designs, practicing screenwriting, and watching movies - especially thrillers. After graduating high school, she hopes to major in a combination of English and education.