Laura Jones
I actually never wanted to teach. It was a total accident that turned into my absolute passion in life. When I was in undergraduate I just loved ideas, I loved learning, I loved the arts. But I thought teaching was- I just thought it wasn’t for me. I was really shy, I liked being behind a closed door reading, or talking to friends. I couldn’t imagine being in front of a class. But then I just sort of happened into high school teaching and quickly found out it was the best thing I’d ever experienced, and the hardest, but I very quickly found that it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So. I feel really lucky.
I didn’t have an original plan. I mean. I feel like most undergrads are like, “I don’t know! This is fun! I don’t know what comes next.” So after I graduated from undergrad I worked. I was a cheese girl. I worked in a cheese shop where I chopped these gigantic wheels of cheese into smaller slices. Worked in coffee shops, worked in bookstores. Just slacked off for a few years until I figured out what I wanted to do.
I actually like high school and college equally for very different reasons. I like the material in college. A lot. We can go deeper; we can be more “intellectual” about things. It’s more challenging. In high school though, students seem to be, for whatever reason, more funny, and irreverent, and sassier, and I love that. Students in college are so respectful and I appreciate it. But I love the smart asses, and there just aren’t very many smart asses in college.
As Told To: betwitchingbrielle