WarriorEDU MCHS Warriors

Join Leah and Jeff as we talk football during a pandemic with Coach Jon Niemic and the Student Captains of MCHS Football.

Welcome to Warrior EDU, Episode 13 with Andy Hiller, MCHS French Teacher & Theatre Director

Andy’s Teacher Story

Always wanted to be a teacher

Loved the big steps on the bus - synonymous with being in the school environment

Foreign language in HS, knew he wanted to teach French

Doing music at the same time

Went to France, stayed for a year

Went back to ISU and got his degree -

France - elementary school

Libertyville Middle School

Gets along with stricter teachers

Open up the idea of possibility

Explore after high school!

Leah’s Wedding Dress

Sewing - out of the blue told Leah that if she needed someone to make her wedding dress for her, he would do it.

Almost ruined it attaching the ribbon by hand - pricked his finger, got blood on the ribbon, had to re-do the ribbon!

Theatre

Always enjoyed productions and theatre, studied a lot of opera

Staging of productions

Worked with a theatre group in France, staged productions

Applied here knowing that he could do theatre

Very difficult to do, so much to do

Working with students on a monologue

Challenge Faced in the Trenches

Why still teach French?

Language education is not an extra, shouldn’t be an elective

Opens your mind to see what jobs are out there and possible

We should all experience this as human beings

Break down the barrier of “core vs. elective”

They all have a place at the table

HOPEFUL

Right now - COVID related.

Long Term - A change in education, a broadening of perspectives.





HOST CONTACT INFORMATION

INSTAGRAM

Dr. Jeff Prickett

Leah Pelletier

TWITTER

Dr. Jeff Prickett

Leah Pelletier

Join Leah & Jeff as we chat with Ashley Burger and her FANTASTIC group of Tri-M Honor Society members! 

MCHS Educators! Share the Tri-M application with your young musicians!

Join Leah & Jeff as we chat with MCHS Graphic Instructor, Matt Connor!

Matt’s Teacher Story

Graphics when he went to HS

Difficult upbringing, lots of family tragedy at a young age

Graphics teacher saw he was going down the wrong path; teacher was also his wrestling coach. Started hanging out in the Graphics lab

Wrestled D3 - never actually wrestled due to injury

Job utilizing graphics skills for Fortune 500 companies during college

Stopped school 8 credits shy, went to work

Former Graphics teacher encouraged him to go into teaching (PE), loved coaching, went back to school - NIU for 4 years

Graphics Lab

Predecessors before him grew the program to where it is today

Design, layout, printing, large format printing - cars, doors, etc.

2nd school in nation (?) with auto screen press

Learning how to be a part of the Graphics business

Soft skills are so critical! Sending email, dealing with customers, etc.

Challenge Faced in the Trenches

Dealing with understanding both sides (teaching & admin)

How do we bridge the gap?

Understanding the “Why” isn’t always clear at first - sometimes we have to have faith

Dealing with controversial things kids say

HOPEFUL:

Setting a good path for (my) kids.

Seeing their dad doing something worthwhile

Graphics Industry - wanting to get a handle on where the graphics field is going in order to move in a unified





GUEST CONTACT INFO:

www.mchswarriorsinc.com

Email: connormatthew@dist156.org



HOST CONTACT INFO:

INSTAGRAM

Dr. Jeff Prickett

Leah Pelletier

TWITTER

Dr. Jeff Prickett

Leah Pelletier

Join Leah and Jeff as we chat with MCHS Band Teacher, Spencer Hile!

Spencer’s Teacher Story

Parents both music teachers,

Grew up at high school football games, basketball games, etc.

Parents wanted him to be an engineer

All of his mother’s families are engineers

Anti-Band

Doing sports and being mean was cool at the time

Parents are biggest mentors as former teachers



Having a Student Teacher during COVID

Understanding the day-to-day pace and rhythm,

Teaching her what the classroom is like



Challenge Faced in the Trenches

Work & Home balance

Air mattress in the car just in case

2-3am - late nights during his first or second year

Changing culture of the Band program



HOPEFUL:

That the pandemic will give people a bigger appreciation for school; deeper appreciation for each moment together.

Teaching us to be humans. This before content.

“COVID Cuts” - what have you cut out of your life as a result of COVID, or just in general? What have you taken off of your plate so that you can be more in the moment?



GUEST CONTACT INFO:

hilespencer@dist156.org



HOST CONTACT INFO:

INSTAGRAM

Dr. Jeff Prickett

Leah Pelletier

TWITTER

Dr. Jeff Prickett

Leah Pelletier

Join Leah and Jeff as we chat with ANOTHER Leah... Leah Nolan, MCHS 1st Year English Teacher, who also happens to be a grad school student. All during a pandemic. 

More from Leah: 

-Being a new teacher in a pandemic

-School spirit!

-Finding your teacher identity and battling self-doubt

-Student choice and building rapport

-Creating a teacher space. (decorating my classroom, even though the students are not here to see it. I think having a workspace that makes you happy is so important)

Leah’s Educational Journey

New teacher, “pandemic” teacher

Great HS experience;

KNEW she wanted to be an educator

Went to community college

Went to ISU

School counseling kept coming up;

Graduate student and FT teacher at same time

Knew how to be a “Zoom Student”

Aspirations: “it’s okay that my journey includes being a teacher”

Let life be what it may

Battling Self-Doubt as a Teacher:

Comparing herself to others

“I should have thought of that”

Compare yourself to you YESTERDAY

The teacher IS the environment this year

Decorating the classroom shapes the environment

Challenges in education & how you dug yourself out of the trenches:

Setting boundaries for myself

Can’t run on empty

Can’t pour from an empty cup

NOT doing anything on Saturday

HOPEFUL:

I hope students come back with a new-found love for school

I hope we see school spirit

High-Fives in the hallways





GUEST CONTACT INFORMATION: 

Leah's Twitter



HOST CONTACT INFORMATION:

INSTAGRAM

Dr. Jeff Prickett

Leah Pelletier

TWITTER

Dr. Jeff Prickett

Leah Pelletier