An ethnographic study of two teaching teams and how they organise learning experiences for their students in the face of competing school priorities. Maroon Secondary college is an Australian school, initially set up to be a Middle School supporting a Team-small-group (TSG) model of teaching. As the school grows to encompass a senior school and a more main stream approach to teaching, two teams of teachers in the middle school reflect on the effect of these two competing styles of teaching on their ability to provide a range of learning experiences for their students. The analysis of these reflections incorporates umwelten and pronoun analysis to understand the positioning of team members and their actions. The study contributes to enquiries of life spaces and cultural agency of teachers.