As JC Booth expands and courses are added, going from 4 teams to 2 teams accommodated the growth.
JC Booth students and teachers return to Booth in the 22-23 school year to find the teams were changed from 4 to 2. “The purpose of having teams is so that in middle school you kind of have that bridge from, you know, elementary where you may have had one teacher to high school where you have different teachers all over the building. So having teams allows us teachers all to kind of collaborate and work together to help their students,” Alison Ivey, current Assistant Principal/ILT said.
In the 21-22 school year, administrators created a pilot program with 8th-grade to test the 2-team system. Kayla Seabolt, the Assistant Principal/ILT at the time, needed a system to make scheduling more manageable. “I think we’re liking the two teams because we tried it with one grade level, and then we expanded it to the whole school.” The intent was to prevent students from being enrolled in classes on more than one team. “So I think that it makes it to where the schedules work out for students, so they don’t…have English on this team and then go to math on another team.” Julianna Frisch, 6th grade English teacher, said.
”…it really helps with scheduling. Having an eight-person team or maybe a seven-person team gives a lot more freedom with being able to schedule students for classes.” Kimberly Fisher, 7th-grade math teacher, said. Some new courses that are added are normal, advanced, and accelerated math in 6th and 7th grade. In 8th grade, they have two high-school-level math classes and one normal math class. With two teams, there is a high-school-level math on each team. If there were 4 teams, then only one-half of the 8th graders would have access to the High School level math class. “Yeah, so the more things that you add, and the more specific you get, the harder it is to schedule with only 4 teachers,” Ms. Seabolt said.
Some students may not know that in the old building, there were pods, which accommodate smaller teams. As the student body grew and more classes were added, the pod system was no longer efficient. Some students had to walk a distance from their teams to get to their lockers. In this building, with the long span of hallways, “It allowed students to be like closer to their locker areas because you have a larger team. And so you have a larger segment of lockers and can have everybody on the team have a locker that is right there near a team teacher.” Kimberly Fisher, 7th grade math teacher, said.
“When we only have four teachers on a team, you might get locked into the exact same classes with the exact same people all day. So by being able to have bigger teams, we can still give you guys the middle school. feel of being able to switch classes and be with different people throughout the day. But still get you all the course offerings that you need,” Assistant Administrator/ILT said.
Allie Hartman • May 17, 2024 at 8:35 am
The article, 2 is better than 4, written by Caroline Demmel really shows all of the thought that went behind choosing 2 teams over 4. I agree with this decision because it’s definitely a better system. It gives us easier access to our lockers, our classes, and it lets us be in classes with different people. I like the way this article gives many quotes from administrators and teachers. It gave us an opinion from multiple perspectives. This article was very eye-opening because I didn’t know that this much thought went into this decision.
Jackson Snyder • May 16, 2024 at 9:28 am
In the article “2 is better than 4,” I feel that having two teams instead of four is a great improvement. The idea of being given more freedom on which teachers we have gives a lot more variety for students. It allows them to meet and interact with many others and be placed in classes where their strengths will show. I also like the idea of having lockers close at hand. Not having to walk down 2-3 other hallways in order to get to a locker will a great improvement. These are the two biggest things that stand out to me, but considering the entire article there is not one negative that I can think of.
Presley Brown • May 15, 2024 at 5:43 pm
I think that the article “2 is better than 4” is good because I think too that 2 teams is better than 4. I think that it is good because it can be more organized and less crazy. The article states that ”…it really helps with scheduling. Having an eight-person team or maybe a seven-person team gives a lot more freedom with being able to schedule students for classes.” stated by Mrs. Kimberly Fisher. I agree with her because it makes the students feel more organized and less chaotic.
Presley Brown • May 15, 2024 at 2:19 pm
The article” 2 is better than 4″ is a really good article because it tells you why booth has two teams instead of four. Two teams is better than 4 because than it can be more organized and less crazy. In the text it states
it really helps with scheduling. Having an eight-person team or maybe a seven-person team gives a lot more freedom with being able to schedule students for classes.” stated by Kimberly Fisher. It makes sense for her to say this because it does make things more organized.
Jaiden Patel • May 14, 2024 at 10:11 am
According to the article “2 is better that 4”, by Caroline Demmel. Explains that 2 team are better that 4 since it allows students to work together. As well as being closer to more people to generate a positive connection between each other. Also the article explains that it is more convenient that students classrooms are closer to their lockers making transitions more efficient. I wonder though, that if the 2 is better than 4 was a factor to the design of the new school.
The idea was very smart in the sense that the transition wasn’t a problem at all and, in fact, may have have made it easier for students. Including that this is preparation for high school, where, as the article states that high school has “teachers all over the building.”(Demmel 2) This change has definitely made some student’s middle school education smoother.
sebastian • May 14, 2024 at 10:01 am
This article talks about how teams are better than 4 teams.
Hannah Ambrose • May 13, 2024 at 2:12 pm
In the article, “2 is Better than 4” this article shows how 2 teams are better than 4. I never knew that at Booth Middle School, there used to be 4 teams. Moreover, I definitely agree with this idea that 2 is better than 4. This is because in the article, Julianna Frisch says how before with 4 teams, the students had to go to math and then had to go all the way to english to another team. Meanwhile, with 2 teams you can have all your classes on the same team. I can’t imagine how much work it took to just go to another class period all the way on another team. After all, I am very glad that this change has been made in each grade level.
Julia • May 13, 2024 at 2:10 pm
I think that this article is really informative and helpful! I never knew the reason that we only had two teams so this explained a lot. I always thought that we had two teams instead of four just because we didn’t have enough students, not because we didn’t have enough teachers to have enough for all of the subjects on each team, but this makes a lot more sense then there being too many students. This is why I agree that 2 is better than 4.
Julia • May 13, 2024 at 2:04 pm
I think that this article is really informative and helpful. I never knew the reason that we only had two teams so this explained a lot. I always thought that we had two teams instead of four just because we didn’t have enough students not because we didn’t have enough teachers to have enough for all the subjects on each team but this makes a lot more sense then there being too many students. This is why I agree that 2 is better than 4.
Charlotte Tiller • Jan 10, 2024 at 7:33 pm
GoOd JoB CaRoLinE
Charlotte Tiller • Dec 15, 2023 at 2:30 pm
GOOD JOB CAROLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)
CHARLOTTE
gavin • Nov 28, 2023 at 7:43 pm
I feel like two teams is better than four because as the article said it’s better for the teachers and the kids because the article says that some kids had to walk to lockers in different teams. Meaning that they were far away from their classes. Also in the last paragraph it states that students have a good variety of teachers. All in all this was a great article.
Quinn Marich • Nov 28, 2023 at 3:05 pm
So when I am Reading this then it is saying to me that 2 is better than 4 because if there is 2 teams then it says in the passage ” I think we’re liking the two teams because we tried it with one grade level, and then we expanded it to the whole school.”
Nevin Alvarez • Nov 6, 2023 at 12:18 pm
This article was very informative. It explains the history of teams at JC Booth and why each grade level now has two teams. I agree with many points in the article and I am glad that Booth now has a two team system instead of a four team system. The article mentions that two teams allow me to see more of a variety of students in my classes and it also makes it possible for all students to have access to specialized classes, like high school math. I like having a variety of students in my classes and being able to access more challenging courses. The article also mentions that a two team system makes a better bridge between elementary and high school. I agree with this and appreciate that it is going to help prepare me for high school and all of the different students and teachers I will interact with as I continue my education. I wonder if there are even more benefits to the two team system or if anyone still prefers the four team system. Hopefully we can all appreciate why the change was made.
Yua Tamura • Nov 6, 2023 at 11:32 am
I Agree with Caroline Demmel ” 2 Is Better Than 4″ because i feel like if there were 4 groups every class would be very empty. I like having 2 groups because it has more students and is more teachable. In the text they said ” I think we’re liking the two teams because we tried it with one grade level, and expanded it to the whole school.” This is why i think 2 is better than 4.
Selina • Nov 6, 2023 at 11:19 am
I agree with the article 2 is better than 4 by Caroline Demmel. It is less confusing than it was years ago. If we still had 4 teams we would have to walk a long distance like it says in the article. Just like it said in the article, having teams is very helpful for the teachers. It allows the teachers to work together and help the students. Also each team had only 4 teachers and now because they only have 2 teams the teachers for each team expanded.
Cadence McAfee • Nov 6, 2023 at 11:06 am
I really liked this article. It was cool learning how my older siblings did things at the old Booth.
I really like the system now because itś so easy for me to navigate my classes.
Annisten Baxter • Nov 6, 2023 at 7:58 am
The article “2 is better than 4,” an article written by Caroline Demmel on Booth Warrior Times informed me that there were actually 4 teams at Booth before there were 2 teams. The article also informs the reader that the intention was to prevent students from being enrolled in classes that were on different teams. I believe that changing from 4 teams to 2 was an effective idea and has stopped students from having classes on multiple teams.
I also believe that it was a smart idea to test using 2 teams instead of 4. If they just changed it in the middle of the school year, or at the beginning of the next school year, they might not have known if it would work. Next, this also helped with scheduling, because a team with 7 or 8 teachers gives the administrator making schedules a lot more freedom. But, why did they choose 2 teams instead of 3 or even 1?
Shannon Roggow • Nov 2, 2023 at 6:14 pm
Great job Caroline. Your article was very well written and informative! Grandma Shannon