The Masterman Condition

Difficulties in arriving to class organized and prepared to teach while simultaneously rushing between classrooms is a sentiment shared by most teachers at Masterman including Ms. Mistry, who teaches Algebra 1 and Geometry, and Ms. Elana, who teaches African American History and US History. Ms. Mistry emphasized that although her first priority is generating as much instructional time as possible, allowing herself mental recuperation and time to gather her materials is essential. With this is mind, she revealed that she often relies on group activities or allowing informal conversation with the students at the beginning of class. Unfortunately, no matter the diligence of teachers, students are affected by the system, “I am so late it affects instructional time. I do not always have my computer so taking roll is tough,” commented Ms. Elana. Ms. Gentlesk added that it is “... extremely challenging to make seating charts which helps get to know students and take roll,” and lamented that students can become frustrated over lessons plans or unreturned work because they do not realize the scope of preparation and time involved in floating.

“It affects your planning, sometimes it’s hard to plan certain lessons in some rooms. When you have a classroom you have all your go-tos and your lessons, you feel a little more settled. But when you float, sometimes you feel like it’s not as easy to do some things, so as a teacher, you feel bad because you don’t want to take away from the student’s experience,” said World History and AP US History teacher, Ms. Vecsi. Such a feeling is echoed by Ms. Mistry who feels as though at times she has to forgo an activity rather than spend several extra days on the same project because of the time spent gathering supplies.

However, the teachers feel lucky to be working at a school where the students are well behaved if left alone in a room by a teacher running late, an idea well described by Ms. Gentlesk: “Students are used to floating and mature enough to handle waiting for teachers while in other schools it could be a safety issue.” Several teachers agreed that they can find upsides in the floating system. “Teaching is very isolating, you spend all your time with your students and you don’t necessarily get to interact with your colleagues so that is one thing that’s beneficial. The other thing is it is kind of nice not having to decorate or clean up,” explained Ms. Diffenderfer, who teaches Spanish 1, 2, and 3. Going a step further, Ms. Marranzini, who teaches English 1 and Film, holistically supports floating and finds it favorable to the traditional classroom setting. “Being in the same classroom period after period weakens me. I like moving around. It makes teaching here more interesting,” she stated. She added that keeping her materials organized on her distinctive personal cart makes the process manageable and even enjoyable. It should be noted that, in terms opinions on floating, she is in the minority.

Although the current floating system at Masterman is relatively unchangeable due to overcrowding, the flexibility and diligence of Masterman staff and students allows for incredible teaching and learning to take place despite these challenges. As Mr. Roache eloquently put it: “Lucky for us we have such wonderful students and wonderful teachers that we are able to succeed and achieve in spite of those limitations... One thing we do have here is a real sense of family. Teachers know all the students... and they look out for the students, they know them by name, they watch them progress from when they’re ten years old to seventeen so I think that really creates bonds that help us to get through some of those difficulties of physical structure.”