Winter 2023/2024 Issue - Magazine - Page 9
Best part of teaching? Our students. They are funny, thoughtful, a bit extra at times, but at the end of the
day, they are just kids. I love sharing my passion for history and sports with them. We teach because we
want our students to have a positive memory of school. I also tell students history is the most important
subject in school because it can be applied to any part of life. We must learn from the mistakes of our past
in order to understand the lives we are living now and to help our future.
Most challenging? There isn9t enough time in our days or resources to help every kid that we work with.
Our job is like having 100 tabs on the computer open in our brains all the time, while trying to deal with
adolescence and a lot of outside forces we cannot control. It is a very emotionally and cognitively
demanding job to be on all day, all week, to show up for your students. The burnout is real.
Favorite memory in the classroom? You know, there are so many. The ones that stick out are the students I
have built relationships with or tried to influence to get through school and be anything they want to be,
and then they run into me in the outside world and they are excited to come up and say 8hi9 and tell me how
life is going. They know I am their cheerleader and am so proud when I see them achieving their dreams.
What do you wish parents knew? We love your children and we love our profession. It is tiring. We are
trying our best. What you see us doing is only the tip of the iceberg of what we actually do in our
classrooms.
Best advice you’ve ever received? My mother has always told me this: Kill them with kindness. Best advice
you would give to future teachers: Maslow before the students bloom. (There is some fun teaching
methodology in there ha) In the first years, fake it until you make it. It is a real thing when learning all the
content you need to know when you teach. Don9t reinvent the wheel; find colleagues to support you in your
practice. It will be a world of difference in your growth as an educator and for the state of your mental
health.
Favorite teacher growing up: I grew up in Morris, MN and had the best teachers! I was a part of everything
because I loved being in school. I loved going to band, phy-ed, English, and then to all of the
extracurriculars I was involved in. I still have great relationships with many of my teachers back home.
How do you balance work/family? The first years of teaching you take so much home and that is one
reason why we see a lot of young teachers burn out and leave the profession. I have learned that it is okay
to leave work at work. If I bring work home, I give myself a timer of how long I can work on it. My family
supports my profession and is very understanding. They like to come to events and join in the school
community. It is the best feeling when my students say 8hi9 to my son and include him! I am not going to lie,
summers are needed to fight the burnout of long hours and the stress during the school year. But I9ve also
never not worked another job in the summer so I can provide for my family. It is a struggle to do it all, well.
Anything else you’d like to add? I truly believe this quote to be true:
