By the end of second period Friday morning, two high school teachers transformed a section of the Forum into their own workspace. Complete with desks, lamps, a clock and even a three-foot plant, the makeshift office drew attention from students gathered in the Forum throughout the day.
The setup was a result of a friendly wager. High school history teacher Kim Nguyen and Director of Student Community Programming and science teacher Bobby Asher had bet science teacher C.A. Pilling that the Commanders would win Thursday night’s NFL game against the Eagles. After the Eagles triumphed in a 26–18 victory, the two losing teachers upheld their end of the bet. While it began as a playful joke, students said that it boosted morale and helped foster a stronger sense of community.
“C.A. is an Eagles fan; Bobby’s a Commanders fan, and I’ve adopted the Commanders as my team,” Nguyen said. “We made a wager at the teachers’ happy hour about who would win.”
Nguyen and Asher brought many accessories with them to resemble their real offices. They set up a mini basketball hoop, office telephones and pictures of their families on the desks. Washington Commanders merchandise lay on the windowsill.
During second period, seniors looked on with surprise and curiosity as history teachers Richard Avidon and James Elish assisted Asher and Nguyen in setting up their temporary offices. Nguyen slid across the Forum in his rolling chair while students speculated on reasons they might be there.
“I’ll give a lot of credit to Bobby,” Nguyen said. “Bobby went all out and got me to bring all my things out here, too.”
“I’m enjoying the experience immensely,” Asher said. “I’ve gotten a considerable amount of work done.”
“Seeing them [Nguyen and Asher] in the Forum is beneficial,” freshman Noah Jansen said. “It makes me feel comfortable in this environment, and the teachers being involved with the space brings us together as a community.”
“It’s fun,” Nguyen said. “It caught a lot of attention.”
All five students interviewed by the Bit said that it was fun to see the teachers working in the Forum and that they lightened the mood.
“It’s fun to see and makes me more enthusiastic to learn,” sophomore Jackson Dygert-Seifert said. “I feel like the teachers are usually kind of dry, so this just brought a fun side to them.”
“There have been some interruptions, but I welcome the interaction,” Asher said. As students questioned Asher and Nguyen throughout the day, they jokingly insisted that this was normal, everyday behavior.
“I think they should do things like this more,” Jansen said.
“GDS is a really hard academic school, so fun stuff like this balances out the stress,” junior Fiona McDermott said.