In room 318, the classroom is filled with biology and human anatomy. Under the room number it says Ms. Shields. Passing by, you can glimpse a smile and passion about what she teaches.
Out of the 2 years Ms. Shields was here at OA, she realized if she wanted students to enjoy learning, building connections with her students could help bring more attention to lessons.
“If I didn’t want to build relationships with students and enjoy their company, then what am I doing here? So I feel like that’s one thing that I really like to focus on,” she said. “I feel like it just makes students more apt to come to my class and want to do their work, if we have a good relationship. If we don’t have one, I feel like it doesn’t make them as excited to come to my class or excited to learn from me.”
She always wanted to be in the medical field but, Covid happened when she was in college which took a big toll on her. Covid had helped her really decide what she wanted to do.
“I really wanted to figure out what I actually want to do with my life, because I didn’t really think I wanted to go into the medical field anymore,” she said. “I remember my high school biology teacher saying to me, ‘I can picture you being a teacher’ and that was kind of always in the back of my mind.”
Ms. Shields teaches 2 subjects, biology and human anatomy. Last year she preferred teaching biology but this year she’s started to like teaching human anatomy more.
“I have a little bit more creative freedom because it is an elective, whereas bio, I do have to like teaching specific things, whereas anatomy, I can kind of play around with what I’m doing, and I don’t have that much leeway in bio”.
As someone who is the youngest in the department and starting her 2 years at OA, she takes lots of advice from the veteran teachers to grow as an educator.
“So I think our department lends itself to having views of older veteran teachers and younger teachers. So I think we all really work well together, kind of sharing new ideas that I might have, and also learning from ideas and things that work for them. So I think just being versatile and adapting to maybe something that a veteran teacher might tell me and then also putting my own spin on it. I want everything to feel authentic to me and not just use other people’s works.”
The biggest misconception about teachers is that they have all the answers, but they’re still learning as well. Ms. Shields always makes sure to give grace to her students because mistakes happen.
“I just hope that students would also give me that grace. I feel like a lot of students forget that we also have our own lives too.”
