Tuesday and Thursday classes are the bane of  some students’ existence and many may feel the same way. These are days with the longest class times. On these days classes are one hour and 20 minutes long, compared to Monday, Wednesday and Friday classes that are only 55 minutes long. The difference in durations may not seem like much, seeing as it is only about 25 minutes, but those 25 minutes drag on, especially if the class is a lecture-based class, where the professor is speaking the entire time and there is not a lot of participation involved.

From my experience, those types of classes tend to be boring and seem longer than they actually are because of the lack of engagement. The professor is rattling off different pieces of information and examples and the students are simply listening and taking notes. There is the off chance that someone asks a question, but even then it does not do much for the entire class. People are still on their phones, sleeping or even talking to the person next to them. I have seen this most commonly in lectures with more than 30 people in the class, but I have also seen this in discussion-based classes with about 22 students.

Naturally, after a while of sitting in the same place for a long period of time, things can get boring or tiring and you may just want to get up and move or take a break. Therefore, I think that there should be some change to the duration of classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They should either include a five- minute break or an activity. Ideally, the five- minute break would allow students to sit with the information they just learned, stretch their legs, go to the bathroom or possibly get some food or drinks to wake them up. The activity could increase some engagement and let the professor know how the classes are doing with what they have just learned. The activity benefits both the students and the professor. They make the hour and 20 minute class seem less boring because they have something to look forward to that will help with their understanding. Either suggestion would do wonders for Tuesday and Thursday classes and may decrease the amount of students on their electronics, sleeping and talking. 

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