By: Zoey Noble and Beka Lashley
Staff Writers
Staff Writers
Elizabethtown Area High School’s English department gained a new member at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year: Ms. Meghan Jones. Ms. Jones comes from a background in English and Theater and now teaches 9th grade students the ins and outs of literature and the performing arts.
For her, EASD was very appealing from the start: “I really like [it]. I think it is very cohesive [compared to] other districts that I have taught at previously.” When asked what her reason for becoming a teacher was, she answered with confidence, “Teaching for me was always something I wanted to do. When I was really young it was my dream job.” Although it was clear that she wanted to be a teacher from a very young age, she initially did not know which subject she wanted to teach. “When I first entered college I was considering doing school psychology and becoming a counselor at a high school, but then I took my first psychology class and I hated it so I decided to go back to the thing that I knew that I liked.” For her, that was literature. In high school, English was something that Ms. Jones considered a strong suit. Writing and reading drew her into the field. But English was not the only thing she found interest in: she also had an interest in theater. “I love theater, I have a background in it, but not in acting, so it has been a fun challenge for me as well because my background is all in backstage, stage crew kind of stuff.” When in the classroom, Ms. Jones tries to design activities for students to help them interact with fellow classmates. Ms. Jones’ classroom is currently located in the MS hallway, room 2130.
“But I think that the most important thing about teaching theatre for me is I spend a lot of time ensemble building and it forces students to interact “This is my first year teaching as a permanent teacher.” Previously she had been a long term sub “I’m here for good.” “I think that when I worked at other schools my style was very different and that is because I operate from a mindset that no student is going to learn unless it is relevant to them and at previous schools I was at there was a very traditional english teacher style where I tell you what to think and then you write papers about it. I think here I am more similar to the teachers I interact with on a daily basis. They are similar to me in that we are always trying to come with new activities to get students moving and honestly just sharing stuff with each other. I really push writing and I know there has been a shift at this school to try and push writing but (it) is something that I believe students need to do everyday to get good at it” “I love theatre, I have a background in it, but not in acting so it has been a fun challenge for me as well because my background is all in backstage, stage crew kind of stuff but I think that the most important thing about teaching theatre for me is I spend a lot of time ensemble building and it forces the students to interact with each other meaningfully on a daily basis. It is really easy to kind of forgo that face to face interaction, the uncomfortableness, learning how to be confident with speaking to your peers when we live in an age when you can do everything on Instagram or Snapchat. I like theatre because it is pushing all of those personality traits to make a good person and that is what the arts does. a curriculum that focuses on the arts that rounds out a human being. It is ‘here is how to be a person’ and to also get into the mind of another person. I get to teach students how to be people.”
“But I think that the most important thing about teaching theatre for me is I spend a lot of time ensemble building and it forces students to interact “This is my first year teaching as a permanent teacher.” Previously she had been a long term sub “I’m here for good.” “I think that when I worked at other schools my style was very different and that is because I operate from a mindset that no student is going to learn unless it is relevant to them and at previous schools I was at there was a very traditional english teacher style where I tell you what to think and then you write papers about it. I think here I am more similar to the teachers I interact with on a daily basis. They are similar to me in that we are always trying to come with new activities to get students moving and honestly just sharing stuff with each other. I really push writing and I know there has been a shift at this school to try and push writing but (it) is something that I believe students need to do everyday to get good at it” “I love theatre, I have a background in it, but not in acting so it has been a fun challenge for me as well because my background is all in backstage, stage crew kind of stuff but I think that the most important thing about teaching theatre for me is I spend a lot of time ensemble building and it forces the students to interact with each other meaningfully on a daily basis. It is really easy to kind of forgo that face to face interaction, the uncomfortableness, learning how to be confident with speaking to your peers when we live in an age when you can do everything on Instagram or Snapchat. I like theatre because it is pushing all of those personality traits to make a good person and that is what the arts does. a curriculum that focuses on the arts that rounds out a human being. It is ‘here is how to be a person’ and to also get into the mind of another person. I get to teach students how to be people.”