In her first year at HCCPHS, Ms. Anderson, the geometry and precalculus teacher, has found herself as the adviser for both the Rocketry and Relaxation Club, the teacher supervisor for the math center, and leads our UIL Number Sense and Calculator team. 

Anderson has 14 years of teaching experience under her belt, including experience as a tutor in college. Originally, being a teacher never crossed her mind; her original career path started with majoring in engineering. However, Anderson’s official degree is in mathematical science, which she tutored in college.

“I found I was good at [tutoring] so, when I graduated I thought ‘maybe I’ll try teaching’,” Anderson said. 

She didn’t immediately become a teacher after completing college. Instead, she explored a few jobs beforehand. 

“When I started teaching, my daughter was six, so around 2006,” Anderson said. “Prior to education, I worked in math labs at a couple of colleges.”

Ms. Anderson loves teaching in almost every aspect, but her favorite thing is seeing students get excited about the topic they’re being taught. She treasures it when she and her students have a discussion about the content. For On-Ramps Precal however, she really enjoys how it is more of the discovery of math topics rather than just giving them the raw information.

“What teaching means to me has kind of changed as I’ve taught,” Anderson said. “It used to just be relaying information to students and giving them what they need, but that has progressed into giving them the skills needed to become successful learners in not only math, but also in other aspects of education.” 

Ms. Anderson loves her job and what it entails, but on the flip side, she has noticed some downsides as well.

“Teachers used to be really odd about sharing what they were using in the classroom,” Anderson said. “Some were nice about it and some were not, so I found it difficult just to get what I needed…The lack of resources was what was most difficult. I hate grading papers; if I could eliminate that from the process, it would be heavenly.”  

Despite these setbacks, they never prompted Anderson to shy away from being a teacher. Over her career, she’s learned many things about what teaching actually means to her and developed a deeper relationship with it. 

“A piece of advice I would give to new teachers would have to be that you can’t do it all,” she said. “This is a job where it can easily consume all of your extra time, and it’s OK to leave stuff at school,”

In just one year at HCCPHS, she’s made a great impact on students, building relationships that will last a lifetime.