April 13, 2022: Series 04
"I always knew I was gonna be a teacher. And when I was little, instead of playing house with my little brother and sister, we played math class."
How has the transition back to in-person affected you? Has it been mostly positive or negative?
It has been more positive than I expected it to be. Obviously, virtual learning was horrible and very challenging. And I guess I was a little nervous about coming back, because I really didn't want to get COVID. And I was pleasantly surprised that people have been relatively healthy. And when we were able to take masks off, I wasn't sure if I was going to participate, and I have participated and it's been like really comforting that it feels like we can go back to the way things were. Even though I don't want to sound ignorant saying that, but it's nice. So yeah, it's been a very positive transition for me. And I think I've just been so happy to see my students have accelerated so quickly, and I'm just so happy to meet everybody in person and yeah.
How has COVID affected your teaching style? Have you needed to make any accommodations or changes?
Yeah, I think that I really like to make a point to bond with my students. And I think that has really shown to light how important that is. I think that's become more important than ever is the student bond. I used to do a lot more acting activities and routines, like for example, partner math or stations. I think I used to do a better job of doing more of it. And I think when we first came back, I wasn't sure if we should be moving around. They needed seating charts from us, so I felt like I wasn't sure if I can move kids around and stuff, and I know people shouldn't be sitting so close to each other. So I think especially the first half of the year, I lost a lot of good routines and structures that I'm ready to start bringing back. I've just started bringing them back I feel like. I want to keep incorporating those more. So I do think there's some kind of classroom routine things I need to relearn. But I do think there's also the emphasis of like, just the interpersonal like, talking and being there with each other. So I think some of the emphasis has shifted and stuff.
Why did you become a teacher, and why did you choose Sage?
Oh, this is great. I always knew I was gonna be a teacher. And when I was little, instead of playing house with my little brother and sister, we played math class. And I had a little chalkboard and a little pointer and I would sit them down and make them do math class. They both hate math, by the way, it's their least favorite subject. So whoops. I always wanted to be a teacher, a math teacher specifically, I think. I don't think in middle school I would have said that or known that but I never like had an epiphany of “oh, this is what I'm doing,” it was just always what I was doing. And I loved math in high school. I majored in math in college, I, you know, love studying it. So I went back for my master's degree, I just wanted to keep learning math. When I started teaching, so I got my undergrad at San Diego State, I moved to San Francisco State for my credential program just to move somewhere new, for no reason. I lived in San Francisco and I started teaching at a very small school called Oceana High School. It was like 600 something kids in the entire school, all four years of high school. They call themselves an alternative public high school, it was still a public school, it wasn't a charter school or anything. But we were very different, we were very special. We had a very special community, very good student teacher bonds. The teachers worked more hours than normal teachers. You know, our union was like, “check yourself don't overdo it, they can't ask you to do all the things you're doing,” but we just were like that we were all just like dedicated and we want to be there. And when I moved to San Diego, it was a really hard time for teachers. It was very competitive, really hard to find a job. I dropped applications all over San Diego County, I got lucky enough to get hired at Carlsbad high. I was hired at part time and it got switched immediately to full time, so I got really lucky I got to start out as full time at Carlsbad high. So it was by chance I moved there. My first year teaching Carlsbad high I work next door to Jeff Simon. And then he was like “oh, we're opening a new school next year sage Creek, like we're gonna start it.” So him and Sue Woolly came over and started it. My second year at Carlsbad High was the first year Sage Creek was open. And when I heard about it, I was like, “oh, I want to go there.” So the second I heard about it from Jeff, I was like, that's where I want to go. I want to be somewhere that is a smaller school population, Carlsbad High was huge, which is fine. But I think you lose, you lose students in that. I wanted to be somewhere that was starting with this emphasis on community and relationships. And when I first came here, my first year here, I felt like, “oh, I'm back at my Oceana.” I felt like I got that something special that my first school had that Carlsbad high didn't have. So I was so happy to be there. You know, and I'm, we're here with a very young staff and we got a fresh vibe and it's really refreshing being here.
How do you manage a balance between your work and personal life?
So that's really hard. My first year teaching I just couldn't believe how hard of a job this was, like just the amount of hours I worked in. It was crazy. When I taught at Carlsbad high I was full time teaching, full time planning a wedding, part time grad school. So I would work all day, go straight to grad school at SDSU, I'd be sitting in a classroom at SDSU all night. And then I drive home, and I lived in Ocean Beach so I was an hour commute. You know, and driving all over the county and then, you know, weekend homework and planning a wedding. Oh, my gosh, it was crazy. Then my first year at Sage Creek was insane, because I had to learn so much technology. Carlsbad High the tech was terrible, I was in the portable, and I didn't know the tech stuff here. So I had to learn all that. And I was developing three trimesters of Algebra Two curriculum, three trimesters of Pre-Calc honors curriculum. Neither of those classes existed when I came here. So I had to create and develop six trimesters of curriculum while doing grad school. I was still in grad school that first year here. And so it was crazy. And I feel like every year my work life balance has shifted. You know, first year teaching, and you're learning how to be a teacher; and then Carlsbad high, I was so focused on grad school; and then Sage Creek, I was so focused on developing the school and developing all this curriculum. And since then, I feel that I have done all this hard work to develop some really good curriculum, I think the curriculum is pretty solid. So I've really stepped away from the day to day curriculum writing, and I'm able to focus my time at school with the students, helping students. My time is now more for like supporting students as we go. Because when I go home there is no time in my household to do anything. I have three kids, they're five, three, and almost one. And so it's very time consuming, I have no time for work at home. So I keep my work at work now. I never did that before. Having kids has forced me to keep my work at work. So I think I've gotten lucky that I had all that time to do all that curriculum work before I had kids. And then now that I have kids, I have this really good curriculum, I'm very happy with it. I think it's pretty set up. So I think that's helped me.
What are your favorite parts of being a teacher?
Oh, I love it. I love the students. I love math. I love getting to do math with the students all the time. I feel really grateful that I work with honors and AP kids because they are so motivated, and a lot of them like it. Not all of them, some of them are just pushing themselves to do good things. But so many kids are interested in it. They do problems that are hard like trig proofs and they go, “oh, this is so satisfying, I like it.” I love like instilling that love of math for my students. I love working with teenagers. I think that it's so cool to see you guys becoming young adults. Especially the teenagers here. I mean, we got some great kids here. You guys are doing such cool things. And it's so cool to see you guys going out into the world. You guys are so much cooler than I was in high school, and so much more confident, and you're doing such great things. And oh, I just, I love to see the young people doing great things. It's awesome.
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