I’m happy to be home,” said Chloe Root, Community High School’s newest history teacher, about her return to the school.  It is Root’s first year teaching a class of her own at Community, although she has plenty of connection to the school.  Root graduated from Community with the class of 2002, and in 2008 she returned as Marion Evashevski’s student teacher.  Now she is back again in her second year of teaching, having spent her first year working at Huron.

Root can trace much of her influence for becoming a teacher to Community.  “I had such a good time at Community as a student that when I got to college I found out that a lot of people actually hated high school, and so I wanted to see how to replicate the experience of really enjoying it and making it exciting for people,” said Root.

Her love of history goes back to her years as a high school student.  “I actually hated history in middle school,” said Root.  “Marion Evashevski, who retired last year from Community, got me into history by reading ‘A Peoples’ History of the United States’”.

As to whether or not having been a student at Community affects Root’s teaching style here, she is reluctant to make much connection.  “I feel like I’m more just in my element here. I don’t know if that makes me better equipped or not,” said Root.  “There are so many people who didn’t come from this kind of teaching environment who are so awesome here, so I don’t know.”

During her short time working in the Ann Arbor Public School district, Root has already felt the impacts of budget issues.  Being a new teacher has led to less job stability.  Root was one of the teachers who were pink-slipped last semester, having to deal with the possibility of being let go. During finals week it was confirmed that Root would have a job in the AAPS district, although it would take more time to find out which school she would be working at.

“It wasn’t until a couple weeks before school started that I actually knew what my assignment was going to be,” said Root, “So I spent a lot of the summer wondering about what I should be planning, rather than actually getting planning done.”  She now teaches at Scarlett in the mornings, and comes to Community in the afternoon for her classes and forum.

Root feels the budget concerns have some negative affects on students as well.  With fewer classes to choose from, scheduling for students has become more difficult.  “I’m really sad to see there being such narrow choices for kids, because I feel like you can get a lot more out of your education when you’re doing what you want to be doing,” said Root.

Despite the recent uncertainty with her job, Root remains optimistic.  “I’m really grateful,” said Root.  “I didn’t think I’d be lucky enough to get to teach in the Ann Arbor Public Schools because the jobs are so scarce, and I definitely didn’t think I’d be lucky enough to get a job at Community.”