Two weeks into the 2019-2020 school year, Robinson has seen various changes from previous years, one of which is an increase in the schools student population, leading to a new situation for some teachers. This year four teachers in the schools history department will be teaching both IB and traditional students.

“There were so many incoming freshman that they just had an overflow, I believe, and they needed another hand on deck,” Jaclyn Militello, IB Government and AP Human Geography teacher, said.

While both part of one school, the schedules for Robinsons IB and traditional programs are very different. Traditional follows a typical bell schedule with around 50 minute classes; while, IB has 90 minute classes and don’t follow bells. The four teachers taking on this new responsibility have expressed some struggles getting used to the routine of teaching for both programs.

“Currently, I am referring to the schedule a lot and with the IB kids I sometimes forget to release them,” Militello said.

This shift to teaching both sets of classes has caused teachers to adapt their lesson plans to fit either the 90 minute or 50 minute classes and be on top of the differing lessons for each class. A few of the teachers have also given students the responsibility of knowing when to leave and how long the class is in order to stay on schedule throughout the day.

“It gets very confusing and I depend on my kids to know what they are doing,”  Melissa Mousseau, IB Economics and AP Micro and Macro teacher, said.

Prior to this year, Mousseau was the only teacher involved in both programs. Mousseau had some words of advice for other teachers taking on this double schedule.

“Learn how to prepare longer lessons because classes are longer,” Mousseau said.

However, with the adjustments being made teachers are making the most out of their ability to be in the IB and traditional world. They experience life through an IB teacher’s perspective and a traditional one’s as well.

“It’s kind of cool to have my foot in both doors coming from IB and then I had a four year break when I had my son and now I’m back as a traditional teacher but, now having a foot in IB still is cool to be back where I started,” Militello said.

With all of the changes at Robinson these teachers were eager to help out where they could even if they weren’t super sure on why they were even teaching both courses at all.

All of the teachers have adjusted to their schedules really well and have had a huge part in Robinson’s success for this year, so far.

“I took me a little time the first week…but now that I’m in the swing of it I think I’ve got it handled,” McCray said.