Photos: Middle school teachers struggle to find time for planning

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Goldenview Middle School band teacher Dan Whitfield plays bass for students during an impromptu lunchtime rehearsal on Thursday, February 12, 2015. The Anchorage School District recently eliminated a planning period for middle school elective teachers, forcing them to teach 6 classes instead of the normal 5.

Before 33-year-old teacher Dan Whitfield started the current school year, the principal at Goldenview Middle School asked him to decide on a new class and prepare to teach it.

For three years, Whitfield had worked as a band teacher at the school on the Anchorage Hillside. He always taught five classes, but this year he and the rest of the middle school elective teachers within the Anchorage School District would teach for six out of the day's seven periods. The extra class meant they would lose their team planning periods -- all to help achieve a balanced School District budget.

As Whitfield saw it, the elective teachers not only gained more work, they also lost crucial time in which they could collaborate and plan large school events or discuss students' progress across classes.

"I know what I could do last year and I know what I can do this year, and I see a drastic change. That's the frustration," he said.

Read more: Anchorage middle school elective teachers object to increased class load