“I came into the teaching world hoping to just pass on my love for reading and writing, which was very limited to the reasons and ways that I loved it. Instead, I realized it has to be able to fit other people's lives, not just my experience. So I’ve learned that a lesson, an idea that I thought was brilliant and worked really well with one group isn't going to be the same in every group. And often, each new group brings fresh takes to things that I should be open to.”

“I’ve learned that if you bring a group of teenagers to a Chinese buffet, they can do some major damage. But I guess when you get old like me, you kind of feel like you've seen it all. Still, every group of students is unique, and so it kind of reminds you that life is fun. And you get to learn stuff all the time, even if you keep doing the same thing over and over.”

“My students have helped me to understand that everybody has a different story and that their stories and experiences are a big part of what they bring to school. What I do with my students is, maybe an hour a day, they have a lot of other things that are going on in their world outside of what we do together. And they bring those things to the table.”

“What I have observed over my career is such a larger percentage of the student body is more accepting of everybody's uniqueness. Not that I haven't been accepting in my life, but it really has to do with the examples they set for others.”

“She was one of my students years ago, and I'll never forget her kind of surrendering herself to the class. Her speech told her story in such a humble way. The dark twists and turns that it took to get where she was—she and her family are from Bangladesh. And I remember sitting there not processing a student's speech, but learning how to be a better human being through her.”

“I think one of the things that I've learned is that people are always going through more than you think and more than you can see just from looking at them. And that makes me always want to lead with empathy and it greatly influences the decisions that I make.”

“I’ve noticed Strath Haven students tend to over-commit, but also they tend to be highly anxious because of their commitments and their desire to achieve or want to do well in everything. And so one of the things I do in my class and one of my goals as a teacher is to lower that anxiety level in my classroom.”