Most teachers normally deal with classes with 20 to 30 people. However, this semester, one teacher, Kristine Boccia, is faced with a challenge: a class of 57 students. 

     Bethany Waters, a former English teacher at Rose, left the school before the beginning of the second semester, leaving her classes without a teacher. The English department came up with the idea of Boccia giving her assignments to the class, and keeping them in a room with a long term substitute. 

     “That doesn’t really seem fair to those kids,” Boccia said. 

     After having a year of online classes, she found it was important to be face to face. She then came up with the idea of using Zoom to teach the two classes simultaneously, but this also seemed problematic to the students in her opinion. 

     “Human interaction is important,” Boccia said. “I’ve maintained that all along.” 

     After all other ideas seemed unfair, she proposed the idea of combining two classes and putting them into the lecture hall. She then received permission to use the room and began preparation.

     Boccia said that the way she encourages student participation has not changed; although, there are twice as many assignments to grade.

     For other minor adjustments, Boccia will not be alone. She is supported by her long term substitute Iris Jackson, and the rest of the teachers on the 300