Arlette Santiago

Have you ever had to do a big group project but not had the space to do it right. Well you’re not alone. All throughout the school we have similar issues of our overcrowded classrooms simply not having the space for big group projects. Up until now it hasn’t been much of an issue, after all students could always just go work in the hallways. But with that being banned you have to wonder, where are students working on group projects supposed to go?

The whole issue started this nine weeks when working in the halls got banned. This happened for two reasons; because many students were off task and because it wasn’t safe to be unsupervised. However there are no other places in the school that would work for large group projects. It is possible that we could work outside, but in Austin most of the year it is simply too hot. And other places like the library or the cafeteria have to serve multiple purposes and therefore can’t be used for group projects alone. All of these circumstances together have created an issue that all of the teachers and students face.

The solution to this problem is simple: there isn’t one. “With class sizes growing and a push for more project based activities we need the hallway space to help kids do more cooperative learning,” says Mr. Sobonya, an ELAR teacher who feels the impact of small classrooms not having room for students to do projects. There is a fix coming soon for the students who will attend the renovated O. Henry Middle School. This ‘new school’ will have plenty of small group rooms and open spaces in the halls for group learning. The only issue: none of the students here right now will be here to see it. So do we really want to wait that long, really want to sacrifice all of these students’ learning? I think that we should find a solution, whether it means creating fanned areas outside or utilizing unused classrooms. After all, we do as many group projects as the students coming next year and we need space to do them right.