April 29, 2022: Series 04
"I value relationships with students, and you just couldn't form relationships with students with cameras off across the internet."
How has the transition back to in-person affected you? Has it been mostly positive or negative?
The transition back to school has been positive in the fact that I value relationships with students, and you just couldn't form relationships with students with cameras off across the internet. And so that's been, you know, a nice change. I think it's just normal though. So I don't think it's anything special. But it's nice to have students and, you know, most of them having their masks off. It's nice to see them. I will say that I think it has been difficult for kids to transition back, and thus then difficult for teachers. I think a lot of kids got into bad habits for a year. I think a lot of kids have come in with some tough mental and emotional issues from the pandemic too, and that's been tough for teachers. But I also think that some of that stuff is ending and kids are kind of back to normal, for lack of a better word.
How has COVID affected your teaching style? Have you needed to make any accommodations or changes?
I think my hope for COVID was that it improved teaching and learning. And the fact that we were forced to use the technology, and forced everyone to think differently about the way we delivered content, how our students assessed how they, you know, got feedback from teachers. I, I think it's all been positive and it's forced teachers to just be creative, try new things, and myself included. I think it's also impacted some of the understandings of myself and my colleagues, just understanding more of what kids are dealing with, that there is a lot more that they bring to our classrooms that we never see. And I think it's just brought that awareness to our attention more than before.
Why did you become a teacher, and why did you choose Sage?
I fell into teaching. I did not plan in college to be a teacher. It's kind of a long story, but basically an ex-teacher of mine said, “hey, you should come teach” at the new school he was at, we had kept in touch after high school. And so I was thinking about it. It was basically a guy who was going to retire, never retired. But then I was lifeguarding and some kids that I was lifeguarding with were like, “hey, we need a teacher at our school,” and kind of said the same story. And so then I went and interviewed at 22, and for some reason they hired me to be a Bio and Chem teacher at an, you know, at an all girls private Catholic school, just outside of Chicago. I don't know how they did it because I was 22, or why they did it more importantly. And then part of my pay was to, there was a college next door, and they were just basically rip a tuition bill up, and the only master's program they had was education. So I did it just because it was basically free. And then I fell in love with teaching and just have done nothing else since. So I chose Sage Creek, I was at Carlsbad for 12 years, and we were opening Sage, and I was thinking about becoming a principal, and thought opening a new school would just be a wonderful resume notch. And I wanted to be part of something new and innovative. And so I jumped on, and was brought on as the department chair in science, and I've loved every minute of it since.
How do you manage a balance between your work and personal life?
Yeah, I try to be very scheduled and, you know, organized, and I really tried to leave school at school, and work really hard so I don't have to take a whole lot of grading home or lesson planning home. I think it also helps teaching for so long you kind of just have your lessons done in some regards. And you're always improving, but you don't always have to write a test on the weekend, or you have some stuff that's already created. But I think it's important to, and I think it's good for students too, is sometimes to leave school at school and have home at home. And I think it's hard to do, but that's how you also create the work life balance thingy.
What are your favorite parts of being a teacher?
Definitely favorite part is the rapport with kids. Um, I think if you've been in one of my classes, you know we joke all the time, we have fun, but we also do a lot of difficult learning. And I also like having freedom and flexibility to innovate to try new things. One of things I love about Sage Creek is we're not afraid to fail as teachers either, that we want to try to push the limits, push boundaries of teaching and learning and our administration loves that we do that and supports us in those things.
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