Lakes Teachers Become Students For a Day

Photo+by+Abby+Vanderwall

Photo by Abby Vanderwall

The staff of Lakes Community High School recently took part in a shadow program in which teachers follow a student around for a day to gain insight into the daily experience of a teen in high school. This program, which has been done for a couple years in the past, has three teachers shadow three separate students through their class schedule. Jori Bowen, the Assistant Principal for Curriculum and Instruction of Lakes, asked a few teachers if they were interested and randomly paired them with a student. Teachers Cathryn Ingram, Craig Stocker and Chris Snyder all participated this year.

“It definitely brought back memories,” said Snyder, who shadowed junior Rachel Cribb. “It has been a long time since I’ve done eight periods a day with really no break. You forget about how tough it is to sit in class for fifty minutes.”

For the students, it was definitely out of the ordinary to be accompanied by a random staff member to each and every class.

“It was kind of weird having a teacher following me around all day and it was kind of awkward because he was there the whole entire time even around my friends, but after a while I got used to it,” said sophomore Camryn Jones, who was shadowed by Stocker. “I think they got a full glimpse of a student’s life because they saw exactly how a day goes and he even did everything that I did in class.”

The teachers especially got to see how students can have a very intense schedule in which they have to constantly refocus on a new subject.

“Each class is so different that you just have to change your mindset from one period to the next where you go from math to a history. Rachel’s schedule is impressive she only has a twenty-five minute lunch,” Snyder said. “It’s pretty impressive what you guys are able to do there, so it’s good just to see it from a student-view.”

This program allows teachers and the administration to see what the student life is really like at Lakes. After shadowing the students, teachers can see if there is anything they can do to improve a student’s experience.