A day in the life of a Los Al student

Shadow Day: Teachers and staff revisit high school

Bella Kim, Staff Writer|February 17, 2023

Mrs. Vienna

Shadows posing with their students, including Srta. Flores with Amelia Bean (fourth from left) and Mrs. Franzen with Bryant Burns (far right).

LOS ALAMITOS, CA — When the first period bell rang at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, staff members of Los Alamitos High School were present in desks alongside the students. They returned to high school for a day to shadow students in their daily routines. The first Shadow Day was Wednesday, Feb. 15, and the second will be Tuesday, Feb. 28. Faculty participants followed their student partners around campus, attending their classes, eating lunch with them, and learning what it’s like to be a student at Los Al.

The idea for Shadow Day came from Challenge Success, a non-profit affiliated with Stanford that partners with school communities to improve students’ well-being. Los Al has a two-year commitment to Challenge Success. The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, or d.school, developed the Shadow a Student Challenge so school leaders could see a school day from a student perspective. The intent is for Los Al staff to immerse themselves in students’ daily activities so they can become more empathetic and make sure the work being assigned is meaningful.

“[It’s] understanding, ‘Wow, I had no idea that the student goes throughout an entire day and doesn’t use the restroom,’ or doesn’t eat, or is functioning on one hour of sleep because they were up all night,” Mrs. Vienna said.

She conducted a survey to find out which teachers wanted to participate, and they indicated what grade and what academic track they wanted to experience. They could choose a student on college prep, AP, or special education pathway, with extracurriculars or without.

Initially, Mrs. Vienna said, about 15 teachers volunteered. She reached out to department leads to try and represent every department. Then counselors selected students and paired them with a teacher or staff member. Students and teachers had the option to decline if they did not want to participate. 

Counselor Ms. Riekenburg and student Elenie Burke, are ready for their Shadow Day together.

“I was really excited but also nervous because the student that I was shadowing had all AP classes,” said Srta. Flores, a Spanish teacher who shadowed senior Amelia Bean. “I took honors and AP classes back in the day, but I know that teaching methods have evolved, so I wanted to see what that looked like,” Srta. Flores said. 

There were 11 shadow pairs on Wednesday, and about 13 for the next Shadow Day. Most of the shadows are teachers, and Mr. Courtemarche, Assistant Principal of Arts, Facilities, Athletics, and Activities, represented the administration on Wednesday. Mrs. Vienna is not a shadow as she is organizing the Shadow Days with Principal Kraus.

“We wanted to give this experience to someone who hasn’t been directly involved,” Mrs. Vienna said. “Mr. Courtemarche will be the admin doing it, which is great because he was a teacher two years ago, so it really does give him that lens because he understands what it’s like to be on both ends.” 

Last Friday, Feb. 10, the shadows and their student partners attended a meet-and-greet to get to know each other before their Shadow Day. On the Professional Development Day for teachers on Monday, March 6, the shadow pairs will share and reflect on what they learned in a panel discussion. 

“It was nice to see the variety of classes a student experiences on a daily basis,” said Madame McCann, a Los Al French teacher.

Other schools that did a ‘Shadow Day’ program gave shadow teachers homework in advance to turn in when they got to class. 

“That would require a lot of teachers to prep that works for the [shadow] teachers in advance, and I’m trying to have this be the least intrusive on the teachers that are having their colleagues in their class,” Mrs. Vienna explained. 

While Los Al shadows did not receive assignments to complete, some did join in classroom activities. Mrs. Franzen, who teaches Modern Lit, Thanatology, and Journalism, mentioned that staying seated all day was hard because she usually moves around her classroom a lot. With her shadow student, senior Bryant Burns, in Japanese 2, Mrs. Franzen enjoyed taiso, a series of full-body exercises that students and workers in Japan perform to stretch out. 

Srta. Flores enjoyed Mr. Hart’s AP Macroeconomics class, but she said it also seemed the most difficult.

“You have to be on your toes in that class, you have to really be paying attention because he will call on you. But I liked the way if you said, ‘I don’t know,’ he guided you so that you could eventually come up with the response,” Srta. Flores said.

“Algebra and biology were my least favorite because I never did well in those subjects until I went to college,” Madame McCann said. “My student struggles with math as I did, so we found some commonality there.”

“There were a lot of terms [in AP Macro] that I think are really, really difficult terms and concepts to understand that I think some of us adults still don’t fully understand ourselves,” Srta. Flores said. 

Extracurriculars like after-school choir rehearsal or sports practice are optional for shadow teachers, but otherwise, most shadow teachers spent the whole school day with their students. Tests were also discretionary; Mrs. Vienna said that it’s up to the teacher, but predicted that most would opt to observe.

Shadow Day allowed Los Al staff to better understand students and find ways to improve their high school experience. With the next Shadow Day on Feb. 28, more teachers will have the unique opportunity to learn  from their students, instead of the other way around.