As covid rages on, Benjamin’s teachers remain steady. With many teachers out due to covid, other teachers have had to cover their classes. This makes for an adjustment for students’ learning process, pushing students to further their adaptive and independent learning. However, this takes a community effort between teachers, students, and faculty, one that Benjamin has displayed throughout the years.

Mrs. Stephanie Oster, Middle School Academic Dean and Science Department Chair, makes a strong effort to send teachers in whom have a connection with the subject matter. Oster says, “Sometimes we will ask a teacher to volunteer if we are looking at the schedule. I look to see who might have experience in that class and on that subject. A lot of times we call outside help if we ask inside help, meaning teachers that are already here on campus… but we try not to.” 

Even still, when teachers sub for other teachers, it can be intimidating to walk into a room with students you do not know with little to no knowledge as to what is going on. “It’s a little scary at first, you know, you get in there and you kind of don’t know what they are supposed to be doing but you figure it out,” says Mr. Bradley Galvin, who has been filling in for other teachers lately.

It is a challenge for students to learn new material with a substitute teacher that may not know what the class is learning. Sixth-grader, Misha Liberzon explains, “I think it is disturbing for my learning when we have different teachers because we progress slower, and the lesson plan is usually reviewed, instead of new material.” 

That being said, students have figured out ways to learn the material even with their teacher being out for a few days. Liberzon says, “I try my best to understand what I can in class, and when our real teacher comes back I would ask her the rest of my questions.”

On the other hand, some students enjoy having subs because they like getting to meet different teachers and learn new ways to understand the material. “I have had Mr. Hunt as a sub a lot recently. Mr. Hunt is very good at including everyone and making sure that everyone understands. He uses teaching methods to keep everyone in the class engaged,” said eighth-grader Pricilla Savidge. 

True to the high academic standards at TBS, students are held accountable for their work and academic responsibility whether their teacher is there or not.“It is important to be honest with the students and rely on them and see where they are at and what material they are doing, at the end of the day it’s their academic lives and they have to take responsibility and they do a good job,” Galvin says. It is the students responsibility to have a hold on their academic lives even through all of the changes over the past few years.

The school not only values academics, but the relationships between the students and teachers on campus. “The family dynamic that we have here at Benjamin is incredibly strong.  People are always there to cover each others back just like a family would, they are always stepping up to the plate,” says Galvin. The Benjamin Family is second to none when it comes to helping the school community.