“Before WHS went to block scheduling (our current schedule), we used to have 7 periods every day. Each period was about 47 minutes long.”

“Most of the faculty had their own room in which they never moved from. Each room had decorations that followed the theme of the subject that the teacher taught. The faculty also had a lounge that most would use for lunch. The lounge was not separated by floors, therefore making it a more social place for the faculty to gather.”

“Students were more social and spent more time socializing, sports, and talking to each other. If a student needed to contact a parent, they had to go to the office.”

“We have more diverse offerings, in classes, like Financial Literacy. We keep changing things. We want to prepare students for the work force and the higher institution of education.”

“I definitely see changes in tools. There’s an emphasis on more technology, which comes with a passing of time. We had a time period where you had to sign up to use the computer lab in the school.”

“We have more to think about with AI and how to integrate it into classrooms and curriculums and how to teach students how to use it effectively.”

“We moved from an old and not so nice building into a brand new building with climate control, but the students didn’t want to move. The old building was one level so students didn’t have to climb too many stairs, but it was often extremely hot in the school at the start of the year and the end of the year. And very cold in classes during the winter months.”

“In addition to teaching; I have coached over the years and one thing that I really miss from the old school was the wrestling room. We had a decent sized wrestling room and we didn’t have to roll out and roll up the mats on a daily basis.”

“Clearly the biggest difference to education is the introduction of cell phones in our society in the 2010s. This has made a difference in the classroom with teachers and students having to navigate the challenges posed by these devices that many people have become accustomed to and in some cases addicted to.”

“Ultimately WHS was and is a great place for a teacher and student to be – of course there are things that can be improved, but on the whole Waterford High School offers an outstanding opportunity both for students and teachers.”

“Our numbers, population wise, have really gone down. When I first started teaching here we had over a thousand students, and now we are down to just around 700.”

“We had way more dances back then. We would do 4 or 5 dances each year. I was the class advisor of 2005. They literally wanted to have a dance a month and kids were going to them. Now I feel like, yeah we have homecoming which is great, but we tried doing the formals and kids just don’t go. The overall participation has just decreased.”

“We watched cell phones become a part of classrooms. When I first started teaching most people had cell phones but they weren’t too active on them. Most students didn’t even have their own cellphone and if they did they kept them in their cars.”

“[Within the student body], there’s some years where there’s still a ton of student support for things, but I’ve seen more years now where there’s not as much for certain activities.”

“Back in the early days kids loved to be at the pep rally. They’d have a great time. Now they had to move the pep rally to the middle of the day because people would just leave at the end of the day and wouldn’t want to be a part of it. That’s been a big change over the years.”

“Obviously the new school was a big change. It felt like a new school then about 2 weeks later it started smelling like old milk. It smelled like every other school and public building. It’s air conditioned in the summer which is a good thing because the other one was not.”

“I suppose technology has been the biggest thing, either battling with it and trying to figure it out, trying to navigate it. How do we keep students from cheating or using AI. Also there’s been plenty of changes in technology where we’ve had to drag students and teachers to use the new technology.”

“I think there was more participation from a wider divergent group of people. I mean there’s the one group of kids that always participates but you used to see everyone participating.”

“It was so nice to have all new rooms and tables and giant Promethean boards, water fountains and bathrooms, as well as the latest technology. I feel lucky to have an attentive administration and IT staff to help out if/when there are any issues.”

“I like that over the last few years we have done a lot more fun activities with students through the Advisory Committee with the Welcome Back Celebration, the Fall Festival, the Reindeer games, Ugly Sweater contest…. a lot more time to interact with the staff and with the students…. helps to create a better sense of community and belonging at the school. I know the committee puts a lot of time and effort into these fun activities.”

“When I started teaching we had a 10 minute break after first block. It was unstructured and the school store was open. There was less pressure to track students.”

“We organized more international trips, taking students to Germany, Amsterdam, Greece, and many other places.”

“The old building has industrial charm, with nails sticking through the ceiling and no air conditioning, but we had enough classrooms for almost every teacher and the setup made to easier to interact with our colleagues.”

“Students worked harder and were more willing to put in the work after school. I teach fewer books, assign fewer essays, and my students complain ten times more.”