IMCs are supposed to be a quiet place students can go to get work done, but sometimes that is not always the case. It can be hard to focus on school work when others around you are talking and being loud.

“Talking causes instability in my focus,” math teacher Jonathan Tigani said. “It makes it difficult for me to do my job for you guys, the students.”

For others, people talking doesn’t affect their focus and they can work just as well as they could with no noise.

“Talking doesn’t bother me as much because I can stay pretty focused on anything I’m doing regardless of volume,” english teacher Stephanie Pueppka said. “I do sometimes have to put in headphones if I really need to concentrate on grading but I am pretty used to [the talking] by now.”

Teachers in the IMCs sometimes try and make students lower their voice levels or have them get work out, but that doesn’t always work.

“I think teachers telling students to stop talking works for a little bit, but as soon as they leave the students just start talking again,” sophomore Rose Grantham said.

Talking is more prevalent during different parts of the day.

“It is usually pretty busy during the lunch mods and then sometimes during 14th mod it can get pretty loud,” Pueppka said. “For the most part though, students stop talking when they are told to. People just need to be reminded of their volume sometimes,” Pueppka said.

It is important to get time to be social during school but you also need to make sure that if others around you trying to use their open mods to finish homework or any other work, they are able to effectively do that. If you are able to control your volume and it helps to have people to talk to while you work, then IMCs are the right place for you to go during open mods. If you tend to be disruptive in IMCs, then there are other places, such as the cafeteria or the little theater, that are available where you can be a little louder than you might be able to in an IMC.