“I hate it,” proclaims senior, Angus Martin. “I love it,” said freshman, Tori Onufrak. No matter what you think,  the customized vocabulary program that has become part of the English Department, is here to stay.

English teacher, Ms. Betz, was the person who introduced Membean to Out-of-Door. “I found out about it at a professional development conference.”

While teaching her former school, Venice High, Mrs. Betz requested a grant from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation to implement the program.  She wrote to get a grant to pay for the memberships for her students in her reading classes.

“I got the grant, and I worked with Membean to get everything set up, and I had my kids doing it. I saw how well it worked…especially because there is a wide range of levels. So when we were looking at books for this year, through some emails back and forth, I said “hey why don’t you check this out and see what you think?'”

Soon after, Ms. Giraud helped Mrs. Betz implement the program into English classes and Out-of-Door.

While ODA faculty is on board with Membean, some students are not sure how they feel about the new approach to expanding one’s vocabulary.

“I hate how we have to do it for three different days because if you miss a day or two then you’re already [in trouble],” said senior, Taylor Albano.

Different teachers require their students to complete a certain amount of minutes a week. Some teachers require their students to complete these minutes in restricted time spans throughout the week, while others only require the number of minutes to be finished whenever their students please, by the end of the week.

“I think it prepares you for the SAT. It depends on how the teacher sets it up. If you have the whole week to do it whenever you want its fine, but if you only have three days that [can be challenging],” said senior, Mark Sulimerski.

Senior Jimmy Kuebler says, “I don’t think it would be that bad if I didn’t have to 15 minutes 3 different days of the week. It’d be much easier to get more done at a time.”

While some students are not big fans of Membean, others think that it is “the best option for vocab,” shares freshman, Abby Lagasse.

“I love Membean. It goes by faster and it’s better than a text book. The quizzes are easy too,” says freshman, Tori Onufrak.

A reminder to all students: Be sure to make your Membean payment by Thursday of next week. All students should have received and email to their ODA Thunder accounts. If you are having trouble finding the email, simply type “Membean” in the search bar of your email account dashboard, and the email should appear. If you still don’t see the email, contact Membean support, tell them your account details (school, teacher, email), and ask for billing.

And don’t forget to finish your minutes for next week!