The new 2022-23 schedule has made many changes at District 99. One of these changes was the removal of Friday video announcements and cutting the length of the morning announcements. Students who were involved in the video announcements last year decided to produce Brain Breaks which are the same idea as Friday Video announcements. However, these videos are not being seen by many students.

The morning announcements were during second period every day and two DGN students would talk for 5 minutes about anything new happening at DGN, birthdays, the pledge, and moment of silence. Due to the new block schedule and later start, the district had to cut out any extra time that was set in the day. 

“It’s not necessarily that we lost a lot of time but we are using the time differently. But one of the things we talked about was that the announcements were getting too long. Now we only allow 1 minute on Monday, Tuesday and Friday for pledge and a moment of silence. Wednesday and Thursday we allocated 5 minutes for announcements,” principal Courtney DeMent said.

The Friday video announcements were short films that had intriguing plots. It was a break in the day that brought excitement to the students and staff. Since several people were upset due to the loss of the announcements, DGN’s radio class put lots of effort into creating an alternative option: Brain Break Videos.

“I always looked forward to the Friday announcement. When you saw the actors around school people would treat them like celebrities. It was such a good way for the school to come together too because students would bond over how funny the videos were, ” junior Kylie Larsen said. 

The Brain Break Videos were produced to bring the same excitement to students and keep adding to last year’s plot. The videos are for teachers to show their students for a break in the block schedule. Since there is no set time for them to be watched they are optional for viewing. 

“I think they are a great idea and I show them, however we lose so much educational time due to block schedules so I understand why teachers would rather just teach instead of show them,” German/ESL teacher Anne Herrmann said.

Producing  the Brain Break videos takes time. There is the time it takes to write the script,film the segments, and edit them. Everyone involved in making the Brain Break Videos have different jobs such as acting or directing. Students stay 2-3 hours after school each week to film

“This week’s video 9/14 probably took about 15 hours to edit even though it’s only 5 minutes long. The videos can take anywhere from 7-10 hours to edit but we have really been ramping up to get people’s attention and show what we can do,” English teacher and TV club sponsor John Waite said.

A poll was sent out to all of DGN asking about videos and announcements. 90.5% of students miss the Friday announcements. 62.9 % of students say their teachers do not show the Brain Break videos. 

“The Friday video announcements were very entertaining. But we barely watch the brain breaks. The classes are so long and they are very much needed,” senior Katrina Hurtado said.