With the staff moving classrooms between periods just like students, this has certainly left an impact on the school.
Notice how I never specified that this impact was very good.
Because teachers are required to move from classroom to classroom in Grand Junction High School’s 2024-2025 school year, they often show up a little late to their own classes. Also, it takes some more time for them to set up. Student’s learning time isn’t hampered because of this, but the learning time is cut short.
There is a distinction between a college campus and a high school campus. When it comes to college campuses, professors are required to move around just like teachers at Grand Junction High School. However, what works for college campuses does not always work for high school campuses.
My dad teaches cell biology at CMU. He is very used to moving classrooms. However, he has to teach fewer classes a day than a GJHS teacher, maybe two a day. He also has much more than five minutes to go to his own classes. It would be inexplicably rare for my dad to show up to a class later than his preferred time and not be completely prepared to instruct.
Since GJHS teachers have five minutes to pack up what they had and go to another class, they couldn’t be as prepared to move around as college professors.
Now, do I blame the teachers for this? Of course not. It’s hard for them to get used to moving classrooms. It’s even harder for the teachers when moving classrooms has never happened before. I’ve had teachers talk about how it’s difficult for them to move classrooms so often. I’m no teacher, but I bet that it can’t be easy on them at all.
We’re already halfway past our school year. We’ve had plenty of time to see how the school operates when the staff goes to new classrooms. Frankly, lots of that time has gone to waste because it’s so easy for teachers to show up late.
If I have to add on, teachers moving from classroom to classroom also leaves problems for students when they need to locate teachers.
Let’s say that you need to turn in some assignments to a certain teacher. Maybe you also want to meet with this teacher for whatever reason. In the old building, you’d go to the teacher’s individual classroom and the rest is self-explanatory.
Teachers now have cubicles. This isn’t too different from college offices, especially since professors like my dad have offices at the college. However, students aren’t allowed in the cubicles. This is another difference between GJHS and CMU; while students can meet with professors in offices, students are not allowed to even go to the cubicles.
To put it quite simply, teachers moving classes has been worse for both teachers and students.
Amanda • Jan 17, 2025 at 8:59 am
I am a substitute who was a guest teacher at the school this week. I had the same feelings you expressed in this article, which is why I did a search to see if the students have shared anything.
I understand this movement offers the best use of space – so classrooms don’t sit “vacant” during planning times. From a cost/space saving perspective this makes sense. It also seems like a great idea to get teachers a space for uninterrupted planning time.
My observations were not much different than yours. When I asked students what’s the most difficult about this system – one said they missed the individual touch the teachers had in each classroom. Another student shared it’s difficult to find teachers so they have given up in the past.
Some teachers were rolling rather large bags of materials, so I could see how navigation or simply being stopped by a student when they find you in the hallway could make them a little late. Several said, having a substitute made it difficult to know where to put the materials. I was provided a more robust packet from office compared to other schools, which seemed to work okay.
I left there wondering how can this be improved. I’m wondering, like in a college setting – do/can teachers hold office hours where they are available somewhere outside of the den? I could see the use of an online/google form scheduling system so students could see the teacher’s availability and make appointments vs having to email back and forth.
I’d be interested to see if the lateness is teachers teaching to the bell time, student interactions in the halls, or the logistics of moving large bags throughout the three floors. Depending on the answer I could see a need to increase passing period times.
There was one classroom I was in that was personalized somewhat. I also wonder if this non-personalization is a function of not wanting to be the first one to put up something on the fresh, beautiful walls. Knowing a few teachers I could also see them not wanting to step on anyone’s toes in their shared space. I’m hoping with time the teachers find more comfort in making the spaces theirs.
From a substitute perspective, it was refreshing to walk around. I interacted with more teachers than I have at any other school as we were coming/going.
I hope the students keep researching this method of school building use and see how to help make improvements.