Substitutes

Classes in C-4 have been without a teacher. Students discuss a challenging environment and efforts to learn on their own

Students talk about not having a stable enviornment

By MJ Feldman

This year, a teacher shortage has led many students, especially in Math II, to not have teachers. Sophomore Brie Berggren said that being in a vacant class has created a chaotic and anxiety filled experience. “It’s really stressful and really difficult to get work done because I don’t know what’s happening. I just can’t teach myself the work.” Berggren said.

Berggren’s Math II class is one of three periods of sophomore classes that don’t have a teacher for Math II this year. With this many students without a teacher, and some who haven’t had a math teacher in years due to the teacher shortage, questions have been raised about how students are learning and what resources are being provided to them.

The classes this year started on Desmos, a math website, and have recently transitioned to Apex Learning, an online learning program. With no one physically teaching the work, and the math on these websites not exactly lining up with the current curriculum taught in the packets, many students turned to separate websites, videos, help from peers, and tutoring to learn.

Since the start of the year, all the learning and work for Math II classes with substitute teachers has been online. Bergrenn explains the struggle of trying to learn without a teacher, and the lack of guidance with work and comprehension.

“Without somebody there to explain the work and what we’re actually doing, I have no idea what is happening. We’ve recently moved to Apex, where there’s not really a great explanation of the concepts we’re going over, and it’s kinda a mix of concepts [...] I really don’t have much of a support system in the class [...].” Bergrenn said.

Sophomore Tizoc Rosas was in the same class and spoke to the lack of support. He has since transferred into Math teacher Gagan Grewel’s Math II class and explained the difference of how he is learning.

“[Before I switched out], I almost gave up […] We did Apex until we couldn’t understand it anymore. [Now that I’ve switched classes] My learning has improved by a lot, but at the same time, it’s hard adjusting so late in the year.” said Rosas.

Math teacher and department chair Georgia Mountain, explains how she sympathizes with students, and how the school offers tutoring as an aid.

“I understand [Apex] is supposed to be a recovery for students […] I dont think it’s a great course for them[...]The way I tried to help students learn before Apex was by giving them videos though Desmos.” said Mountain.

Mountain also later added that despite the teacher shortage the school is interviewing teachers and hopefully there will be another Math II teacher soon. However, for the time being, Mountain advises students to research videos online or go tutoring, which is available after school and offered by multiple teachers and in the library.

“I have offered for students to come in during lunch.” Mountain said.

Even though students are struggling with learning and doing work, the best thing students in these vacant classes can do right now is seek after school help in tutoring if possible. In the future hopefully a new teacher could be a possibility, but as of the moment, teachers alike sympathize with them. “I feel horrible that students don’t have anyone to support them.” Mountain said.

By Alina Gomez

Everyday before walking into C-4, Junior Manisha Chand wonder how chaotic their day is going to be. Chand said the class, which has not had a teacher all year, strugles from a lack of stability.

“It’s literally just so hard, and it’s like no one can do something about it. There’s, like, different teachers every day, and there’s so much work every day but still nothing in our brain, so yeah. It just sucks.” Chand said.

Chand is a student in the Math 2 class of C-4. At first, the students were given Desmos with no knowledge if their work was being graded. This caused her to go to her counselor seeking some help. While using Desmos, the students were informed that the grading system had changed for them. Instead of the pass or fail system they had started on, they switched it to letter grades. This frustrated students because they had no teacher to teach them the subject, and they felt that the the lettter grades isn’t fair for their situation.

“That’s what I talked to the counselor about already. She just kept telling me to do my work and make sure someone is grading my work. If not, then speak with another math teacher or so on.” Chand said.

During the time that class C-4 has had no teacher, there have been frequent substitutes. One of those substitutes is Jessie Fritzen. She’s been periodically covered classes in C-4 and noticed that not many students do their work. Because of this she believes that the school switching to letter grade is justified.

“I think that it should be letters. I do because there are people who are working hard and who are receiving an A and they should have that on their transcript. And there are people who literally are not doing anything and it should reflect that as well on their transcript.” said Fritzen.

Another student in the same class, Junior Hyrum Ahquin, is also struggling with having no teacher. With no teacher in the class to explain the material to the students. They are simply given work and expected to complete it, learning little to nothing.

“The main one [struggle with having no teacher] is just not being able to learn, and they’re kind of like throwing us into the fire by giving us material that we haven’t learned about. So without having a teacher to teach us, really, about anything, then we’re not learning anything.’’ Ahquin says.

This was a struggle that both of the students shared, but an easy solution to this problem could be to ask the substitutes for help. However, there are new substitutes everyday which makes going to class more difficult with no stability. Another issue with that is most of the substitutes know little about the math that the students are being given, so they often don’t give the proper information which just further confuses the students. “Some substitutes just sit there. And some of the teachers are just not the best at teaching, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing, and they just start explaining some random topic to you that you don’t even know about.” Chand said.

Fritzen is one substitute that used to be a math teacher, but even she has admitted that the work that is given to the students is difficult. Before switching to Apex when the students were just given worksheets she tried her best to give lessons and explain the work to the students. But after switching to Apex it got more difficult since Apex isn’t really something you can explain as a group because everyone’s on different units. The work that is given during Apex is even difficult with very poor information.

“Which is a little more challenging because they’re all in different spot[s] in APEX. And so like some kids are in unit 4 and some kids are barely in unit 1 because they’re just not doing it. So I can’t really do like a group lesson for the whole class whereas before it [was] not apex. I could do teaching like everybody.” Fritzen said. “Apex is definitely more difficult the curriculum is not so much geared toward group engagement and very visualized. The wording of how things are there’s a computer test and a paper test that they have to do at the end of every unit. And that was unclear for a lot of people.’’

Even with all of these struggles of having no teacher the students are still hopeful of having a teacher soon. That way they can finally be taught what they are learning on APEX.

“Some changes I would like is to have a teacher. I feel like we’re doing APEX with no learning then what’s the whole point in doing it you know what I mean. Like why be in a class when you can’t learn.” Ahquin said.