Where are you currently teaching?
I teach Reading Intervention at Whiteland Community High School.
How long have you been teaching?
25 Years
What inspired you to go into teaching? Was there a specific moment or experience that solidified your decision to become an educator? Were there significant teachers or mentors that shaped your experience? How did they impact you?
I had a brother who struggled with reading and achieving even decent grades. At the same time, he created robots that worked and won Lego contests with a trip to Denmark as the prize. He was brilliant, but couldn’t access reading in the typical fashion. I wanted to learn how to teach kids how to read with much less frustration than his experiences.
Mrs. Traycoff was my brilliant English teacher during my freshman and senior years of high school. She forced her students to understand grammar and the foundations of language. Additionally, my aunt was an Orton-Gillingham kindergarten teacher who encouraged me to take the same courses. When I began teaching English in high school and found myself perplexed about how to handle a situation, I would call my uncle, who was a well-loved and veteran history teacher.
All of these people, plus more helped me to become a solid educator who has continued to teach.
How do you spend your summers?
For many years, I spent the summers with my children. Now that they are grown, I may take a class or a couple of conferences. I spend a lot of downtime reading what I want, working on my hobbies, traveling, and reflecting on what went well the last school year and how I can improve the following year.
What is your favorite thing about your job? Is there anything you gain from being a teacher that other careers don’t offer?
My favorite part of teaching is developing relationships with my students. Plus, my days are never the same two days in a row. I get to teach students how to become better at reading and writing, but also, I also teach them soft skills such as perseverance, advocating for themselves, and time management, which adds to their academic success. As a teacher, I know that most of my students will not remember me five years down the road, but hopefully, they will take a piece of what we did in the classroom and utilize it for the rest of their lives.
What would you tell a student who’s interested in teaching?
This career is amazingly fulfilling and definitely can be draining if you allow it. It takes a couple of years, but finding your work/life balance is the only way to be able to manage this long-term. Sometimes you have a really bad moment in your day. You can choose to let it ruin your day. When you go home, try to leave that experience at school so that you can thrive at home as well. Over my career, I know that there have been at least 10 people who are still alive because of my actions. You change lives, even if you never know it many years later.
How do you hope to inspire the next generation of teachers?
This calling that you have is heart-stoppingly needed. We need teachers who are willing to work hard to ensure the success of our next generation.