Six new teachers on what surprised them

Northside added six teachers this fall — chemistry, world history, two English sections, orchestra, and special education. We asked each of them the same question: what has surprised you most?

For chemistry teacher Priya Natarajan, it was the bell schedule. Northside runs an A/B block, and in the first week Natarajan kept wrapping up a ninety-minute lesson at the fifty-minute mark. “My students let me do it twice,” Natarajan said. “The third time, somebody finally told me.”

Orchestra director Sam Whitfield did not expect the pep band. “At my last school, the band played football games,” Whitfield said. “Here the band plays volleyball, the spelling bee, and a retirement party. I have learned three fight songs.”

English teacher Leah Okafor said the surprise was how much students wanted to talk about books they chose themselves. The classroom library Okafor stocked in August was half empty by Labor Day.

For world history teacher Marcus Bell, it was the hallway at 7:40 in the morning. “Everybody says hi,” Bell said. “I taught at a school of three thousand. You did not get a hi.”

English teacher Grace Liu and special education teacher Andre Moss gave the same answer: how fast September goes when it is your first one. “I blinked,” Moss said, “and it was the fourth week.”