History teacher. Biology teacher. Physics teacher. Spanish teacher. Acapella director. Principal.
In his four years as principal at PHS, Adam Littlefield said that he has taught AP European History, AP United States History, biology, physics, Spanish, and even acapella. This year, in addition to taking on the role of athletic director, Littlefield taught four periods of freshman biology for almost four weeks until the hiring of new biology teacher Selwyn Kumar.
“I wasn’t sure how long this was going to last,” Littlefield said. “What’s been very helpful is that Ms. Seto is also teaching biology, so she combined some of the lessons for me, and then I adjusted them to kind of match my interests and ability. I’m not a biology teacher by any means.”
Kumar said that he is currently in the process of earning his master’s degree and teaching credential. Distance learning is relatively new to him, although he did have some experience starting in March, when he taught at San Mateo High School.
“Teaching has always been exciting to me because it’s always different,” Kumar said. “Between different schools, different school years, you always have new students so it’s not always the same thing every single day or every year. There’s always something to look forward to.”
Other new PHS staff members include social studies teachers Hayley Adams and Hillary Freeman, social psychology teacher Josh Ardis, math teacher Ian Burns, acappella teacher Jorell Chavez, and science teacher Dean Covalt, according to the PHS “Welcome to the 2020-21 School Year!” email released on Friday, Aug. 7. Their first years at PHS will begin in distance learning.
“I’ve been teaching for 35 years, and I was more scared on the first day of school than [when] I was a brand new teacher because it’s just completely different,” English teacher Elise Marks said.
This year, Marks said that she is teaching two English 3-4 classes, two AP English Literature classes, a freshman-sophomore class at MHS, and a semester each of creative writing and public speaking, putting her at an overloaded schedule of 120 percent.
“Trying to find a teacher right now to just teach a 20 percent job would have been almost impossible,” Marks said. “It would have been another one of these, ‘Okay, Mr. Littlefield is your English teacher for the next few weeks’ [situations], so it was just a lot easier if one of us [English teachers] were willing to step up and take it.”
With the increased need for tech support due to distance learning this year, the district replaced one of English teacher Debbi Hill’s freshman English classes with time to do tech support. English teacher Beth Black took one of Hill’s freshman classes, and Marks took one of Black’s AP classes, giving Marks a total of six classes this semester.
“It used to be that the union actively worked to try to limit [taking this workload] because if it can be shown that a teacher doesn’t actually die teaching six classes, then there can be pressure to say, ‘Well, everybody can teach six classes,’” Marks said.
While Marks said teachers taking overload schedules is uncommon, it has occurred more in recent years due to teacher shortages and budget difficulties within the district. English teacher Mercedes Foster took an overload schedule last school year, as did science teacher John Savage a few years earlier.
“It’s actually insane,” Marks said. “It shouldn’t really happen. I think it’s just an emergency situation kind of thing. But for right now, I think just with the teacher shortage and the number of times we’ve had uncovered classes in the last few years, nobody wants that to happen, so I think teachers are feeling a little bit more flexible like, ‘Okay, I’ll fall on my sword.’”
However, Marks said that since she does not need to do extra background preparations for her additional AP class, teaching at 120 percent is probably a lot easier than if she were on campus. She said that students, for the most part, come into class with a good attitude and try their best to make distance learning more like regular school. Not having to worry about her commute everyday, which would take at least 40 minutes each way, also helps.
“I think [distance learning is] a lot better this year,” freshman Jamie Schwarz said. “It’s way more organized and everyone’s going to classes. I feel like last year, some classes only [had about] half the people in the actual class. I also know everything that I have to do every day rather than just like getting assignments at random points during the week.”
Schwarz said that she was in one of Littlefield’s biology classes and has enjoyed getting to know all of her new teachers.
“I think [Littlefield has] done a good job of getting us on track and learning about how the year is gonna go,” Schwarz said. “It’s also nice to get to know him, because usually you don’t really know the principal.”
Getting to know his students better has always been his favorite part of filling in teaching positions, Littlefield said.
“I can talk to [students] certainly about the subject matter,” Littlefield said. “But then I also am also asking them about other elements of the school and things that they’re experiencing so that it helps me figure out what [I can] learn from them, and then what [I can] do to help improve the school.”
Still, Littlefield said that he looks forward to Kumar taking over so he can devote more time to his job as principal. A new athletic director will be hired within the next few weeks, too.
“Three different kinds of jobs, three different things, Littlefield said. “There’s not enough time to do everything that needs to get done.”
Despite the changes this year, Marks said that her English classes have been working better she expected. She also enjoys seeing the different was people have been taking advantage of technology.
“We’re making the best of it, and I hope we’re back in the classroom before too long,” Marks said. “But safety first.”
