By Pooja Kathail

Menlo has seen a recent upward trend in teachers sharing a class and switching off at the semester. History teachers Dan Devitt and Stephanie Portman shared one block of Modern World History last year, with Portman teaching the first semester and Devitt taking the second. English teachers Erik Wessler and Cara Plamondon are following a similar format this year with three blocks of sophomore English, as are English teachers Carla Pugliese and Jessie Brugos.

The reason for these shared classes is to accommodate teachers who need to take a semester off, for a maternity leave or sabbatical, or to maximize the number of semester electives being offered. In the case of Devitt and Portman, Devitt taught Intro to Law first semester and Portman taught Contemporary American Issues second semester, so they each taught an extra block of Modern World History the semester they were not teaching their elective. In the English department, however, shared classes are being used more for the purpose of teachers taking leaves of absence for a semester.

In order to create a smooth transition between the first and second semester, teachers communicate frequently about the students and class material. “Devitt and I, especially in the first few weeks after the transition, communicated a lot about students and seeing how the transition was going,” Portman said. Plamondon and Wessler, who will be switching at the end of this semester, have also been in frequent communication. “Next week [Plamondon] is going to be coming into my classes and formally meeting the three sophomore blocks she’ll be taking over and actually giving them a lightweight assignment to see where their writing skills are and break the ice so that she doesn’t walk in [for the first time] on January 7th,” Wessler said.

Wessler and Plamondon have also been trying to standardize their grading so that students do not receive vastly different grades in the first and second semesters. “I think she and I are on the same page with grading, obviously we’re not identical, but we’ve done anchored papers together where you read the same paper and score it. So there’s a level of fairness there that your A is not my C, or vice versa,” Wessler said.

Wessler and Portman both believe that a crucial component of this format of teaching was that they had worked with their co-teacher as part of the same teaching team prior to the co-teaching experience. “[Plamondon and I] have worked together on the same sophomore team for seven years and we’ve developed a lot of lesson plans together, so for me to then have the kids for the first semester and her for the second isn’t quite as odd of a fit,” Wessler said. Portman echoed his sentiment, “Devitt and I have both taught the course for so long and we communicate anyway about the tenth grade experience.”

Even though teachers communicated and did as much as they could to create a smooth transition, students still found the experience of switching teachers at the semester to be difficult. “It was a little bit disorienting for the students,” junior Katelyn Weingart, who had Portman for the first semester of Modern World History and Devitt for the second, said. Junior Jakayla McDowell, who was in the same Modern World History class as Weingart agreed. “It was difficult in the beginning coming from […] Portman because the way she teaches class is a lot different from the way […] Devitt teaches class,” McDowell said.

It seems as though teachers precautions to make sure their grades were similar in both semesters paid off. “[My grades were affected] only slightly and they got better towards the end of the semester. I wouldn’t want to change teachers for every class, but I think it was good learning two different teaching styles and adjusting to what teachers want,” McDowell said.

The experience of switching classes at the semester can be great preparation for courses in college. “Having exposure to teachers who are passionate about different topics or to different styles that teachers have in the classroom just prepares students more for the college experience. The more exposure to different kinds of teachers, the more adaptable and more savvy you get in the classroom,” Portman said.