Practically everywhere you go now, you’re bound to witness the societal consequences of job shortages. Restaurants void of decent service, stores where you have to chase down the employees, theme parks scarce with ride operators and the public school system.
In recent years, it has proved to be increasingly difficult to find people who are both certified to teach and passionate about it. The reality of teacher’s salaries doesn’t aid this pursuit. So, even when a passionate teacher is found, it has proved to be more and more challenging to encourage them to stay.
For several years, this has been an issue in the Robinson Physics Department, disrupting the education of students and depriving them of a constant and qualified presence in the classroom.
Typically, when there’s an abrupt absence during the school year, a substitute teacher is placed temporarily in a class until a new teacher is found. This is a much easier task for less specialized subjects, like simply English or math; but when you have a class as specialized as physics, finding a qualified teacher can be an arduous task.
Due to how lengthy the process of finding a new teacher is, there has to be a provisional in place during this waiting period.
“Once a teacher leaves, the department chair, in this case being me, works with other teachers in the district to develop lesson plans,” said Kristina Chiodo, head of the science department. “This now forces the students to learn independently with online lessons and tutorials from other teachers in the district because the substitute is not certified to teach the subject.”
Chiodo and a team of teachers grade the students’ work and communicate with them via Canvas about day-to-day questions while the administration conducts the search for a new physics Teacher.
“This [the unfilled position] puts a burden on the rest of the department because teachers have to [provide] coverage for the sub [while the permanent position remains unfilled]. This means teachers are losing vital planning time. As the department chair, I lose a significant amount of this time because I take on all the lesson planning and grading. I’m essentially doing the work of two teachers,” Chiodo said. “To give you an idea, I’m grading for over 425 students. This causes a major delay in me giving my students, and the physics students, feedback on their own work which is frustrating for me as a teacher because I prioritize timeliness.”
Although students have access to many of the devices used in a classroom with a permanent teacher, they are lacking the one-on-one guidance that can be crucial to many students’ learning.
“Students aren’t receiving the education that they should because of these absences, but we are trying our best to give them work and different outlets to help them learn the required standards,” said Christopher Pettit, Assistant Principal of Curriculum. “But we understand that this isn’t the same as having a qualified teacher in front of you.”
A typical class lead by a permanent teacher is filled with many different activities and types of assignments to enrich one’s learning, however, when that teacher leaves, so does the creative lesson plans.
“I was worried for a while because we weren’t getting much done. When he left… it was left to Ms. Chiodo to grade [our work] and I just didn’t think it was going to be updated because she already has a lot going on as the head of the science department,” Physics student Kaelyn Curry (’25) said. “Most of us do our work but the rest of us sit on their phones. The [substitute] doesn’t give us much instruction. They’re just writing on the board and we are supposed to read it.”
Due to the nature of physics, it requires more effort to find replacement teachers compared to other sciences. Many people who have physics degrees usually pursue more lucrative careers, which leaves many physics classes, not just ours, teacher-less.
“Most science teachers are much more comfortable teaching biology or environmental sciences which puts many schools in a difficult position in regard to physics,” said Manuel Montero, IB physics teacher.
While learning a subject as complex as physics without a teacher might be challenging, the road to success is not an impossible one to travel alone.
“Last year we had the same situation where a physics teacher left during the year and there was a long-term substitute teacher. These students still had to take the exam at the end of the year, and many of them passed with very good scores. So, it’s not to say that the situation is impossible, we just need kids to attempt to complete assignments and learn the content even without a teacher present,” Chiodo said.
