World History and English 1 teacher, Jessica Palmer, who is teaching at Watauga for her first year
This year at Watauga, there are more teachers sharing classrooms than ever before. Many teachers’ routines have been rearranged. Directed to flow in and out of different classrooms, teachers may not have resources readily available in each classroom which might impact instruction and learning.
New Spanish teacher at Watauga, Jill Baime, is in her 24th year of teaching and has been in schools where sharing classrooms is common.
“I started my teaching career on a cart floating from room to room and I even had to travel outside the main building to teach in portables. As a veteran teacher, I am okay with sharing classrooms,” said Baime. “I am always respectful of the classroom I am in and I expect my students to be respectful of the classroom they are in as well.”
Baime is comfortable with sharing classrooms, and it does not affect her teaching. She says that a benefit of sharing classrooms that she has found is not having to set up, decorate, and maintain a classroom, so she is able to focus more on the subject she is teaching without having to worry about other things.
Phillip Hicks is a new teacher at Watauga and is sharing a classroom with his colleagues for the first time. Hicks says that sharing a classroom has been beneficial to him in different aspects.
“Sharing classrooms has been beneficial because I have to be proactive and creative to teach,” says Hicks.
Jessica Palmer, a World History and English teacher, says that sharing a classroom has affected her schedule by having to be hyper-aware of time and hallway traffic during bell changes.
Math teacher, Phoebe Boeschen, says that sharing a classroom has created complications since she has to get everything set up and start teaching without taking away from students' learning.
“Currently, it takes an extra 10 minutes to get everything out of my bag and to set up the room,” says Boeschen. “I am only able to take so many things to the class due to having to bring everything to the room. As I do have another teacher working with me during the class, it can be difficult to just feel prepared and ready to start. We are unable to keep things up on the board, so we brought in an extra whiteboard to keep all of the homework organized for the students. I do think it affects us being prepared, but we make it work!”.
Watauga hired 20 new staff members this year, and with so many new people coming in, space can be an issue. Everyone is working their best to help each other out and doing what is necessary to keep our school running smoothly. Although sharing classrooms can be difficult, teachers are working hard and getting into routines with their class-switching to be the best teachers and staff members they can be.
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