No, it wasn’t a scene out of one of those movies where an adult is suddenly a high school student all over again.

Beaver Area High School’s teachers hit the books last month with a new program that encourages teachers to shadow a student for a school day.

Since February 4, high school teachers from all different departments have been shadowing students in order to gain a better perspective of a student’s school life and day-to-day schedule.

To begin the process, the website—shadowastudent.org—is presented to the students in an invitation to have a teacher shadow, and it explains the whole process behind what will occur in the shadowing.

It’s no more or less complicated than a normal student shadowing experience (such as when a student from another school visits for a day): the teacher is assigned to stay with a select student for the school day and watch/take notes on what they observe. And that means taking tests, participating in PE, having lunch in the cafeteria, etc.

The shadowed students ranged in grade levels, but most were seniors this first time around.

So far Dr. Julia Grise shadowed senior Hannah Szczesny, Mr. Scott Hazuda followed senior Miller Boyd, Ms. Aimee Firmani shadowed freshman Wyatt Ringer, Mrs. Caitlyn Belhumeur was with senior Jack Yanssens, Mrs. Stevie Green shadowed senior Toni Lewis, Mr. Luke Leiden followed junior Brandon Kanell, and Mrs. Heather Bixler shadowed sophomore Dannae Lacey.

In the future, Mr. Brandon Ambrose and Mrs. Sarah Sams will be shadowing, but they still need to find students and determine dates on which they’ll shadow.

The teachers had astounding reactions of positivity towards the shadowing program, with Mrs. Green—who shadowed February 20—stating, “I do think that there’s definitely value in having [teachers shadowing]; I think it’s something that I would also encourage other teachers to do. Of the couple of teachers I’ve talked to so far [who have shadowed], they have said the same thing: it was valuable and eye-opening.”

“Academically, I was very impressed by the lessons that the teachers were presenting. I thought that the teachers were offering interesting things for kids to do; it was an interesting learning experience,” Mr. Hazuda added after he shadowed February 5.

From a scheduling perspective, the experience has been the most insightful, especially to guidance counselor Mrs. Belhumeur.

“A lot of the feedback I’ve been getting from students is that we need some more ‘fun’ electives. We have a lot of rigorous classes, which are good for our academics, but we have many kids who take study halls—especially the older kids—because they don’t want to take another rigorous class. But, if we had some fun electives, I think we could have a more whole experience for students and give them more opportunities that they aren’t taking advantage of right now,” Mrs. Belhumeur remarked after shadowing February 12.

From a student perspective, the students who were shadowed had approving attitudes towards the experience as well.

“It was good. [It didn’t feel] weird when Mrs. Green followed me around—lunch was a little odd, but everything else was pretty fun,” Lewis commented.

“I thought it was a good idea because it gives the teachers a different side of what happens [at school]. When Dr. Grise followed me around, she said she had never come into the cafeteria before and never seen this side of things. Teachers don’t really see what we go through, so it’s going to help make the school better because they’ll actually see what school’s like,” Szczesny stated after being the first student shadowed February 4.

Overall, this shadowing program has been a success for both students and staff, and perhaps changes will be made in the future to enhance student life at Beaver Area High School.