Last week, Uni High had its annual Agora Week where students create a schedule full of unique classes taught by fellow students, parents, and staff. 2024 was another year that saw unusual classes taught by students across various grade levels. As students every year consider teaching a class of their own, it’s common to wonder what it’s like to be an Agora class teacher. Is it stressful? Is it scary? Let’s examine the experience of this year’s teachers and students to find out.
“It was a lot of fun,” Claire, a senior Agora class teacher, said regarding her teaching experience. “It always takes a lot of preparation but it ends up being really fun because I’m kind of learning and doing what I love along with the students.” Preparation-wise, she says that “my class was more stressful than others because I teach How To Plan a Party and that takes a lot of planning as you would imagine. The week and weekend before I’m baking, researching, planning, getting supplies, and figuring out how I’m going to set up each room, so I’d say it’s fairly stressful but it’s, kind of like, fun work”. As a three-time Agora class teacher, Claire recommends “to overplan and over prepare, and I would definitely recommend to prepare for teaching for a long time. Make your presentations long, have activities for the students to do. Make sure to kind of relax and have a plan that you tell your students at the beginning of the week so they know what they’re getting into” she says. She thinks that, despite the stress that comes with teaching and preparing, she enjoys the experience every year.
“It went a lot better than last year,” said Adrian, a freshman who has never taught a class. “I got to have more selection over my classes so I wasn’t, like, forced to pick any of the classes that I chose.” He compared his experience with Agora days this year as a freshman to his subbie year, highlighting the wider selection available to him that improved his overall experience. In critique of Agora class instruction, Adrian explained that “a lot of times it was either the lesson plan was too long for the Agora days; like, we had a super limited amount of time. Or, on the last day, we didn’t have anything to do.” In terms of teaching, he thinks it would be stressful. “Yeah, I think it would. There’s a lot of planning,” he says.
Whether teaching an Agora class is unappealing to you or not, Claire seems to enjoy teaching her class every year, so maybe you will too. 2024’s Agora Days seemed to have gone by smoothly, with some praise and criticism from students following the week. Hopefully next year will be even more successful, and maybe students who haven’t taught before will build up the courage to teach a class of their own.
