Teacher

Elizabeth White
Liz White
Class: ASB, Yearbook and two Brandman dual enrollment classes

Years at Riverside Prep: Five
1. What do you like about teaching at Riverside Prep? I love that I know 90 percent of the kids on campus, by name or by face. They all say good morning to me, they all say hello. They come into the room and hang out in here in the morning, they hang out in here after school, they just know if they need something they can come to me. I help a lot of the teams with their paperwork and fundraising ideas and all that, so it's just nice that they all know they can come to me if they need something.

2. Why did you go into teaching? Honestly, I started subbing for the schedule and I realized that I liked having summers off, I liked having the breaks off with my kid and I wanted kids to have as much fun as I had in high school. So they need that teacher to connect with, that teacher to have a relationship with, that teacher they can always go to or count on to create that atmosphere. I started out teaching art at the middle school and doing art events, like painting the trash cans for our Day of the Dead festival and Color Runs and stuff like that. And then I started helping with middle school ASB and then Ms. Baeten asked me to come do high school ASB.
3. What's the biggest reward of being a teacher? I honestly still communicate with my high school teachers, a couple of them, and my . middle school ASB teacher. And I ended up going to camp with my former middle school ASB teacher and reconnecting with her, and just seeing how much impact she still had on kids, 20 years down the line, was crazy. And that just became my goal, I want to be that in 20 years. They say ASB teachers only last two to three years and then they fizzle out, but I like being busy all the time and my ultimate goal is to make sure not only the kids enjoy the school, because I came from a tiny school with only like 36 seniors, but that they also remember the school well. So that helps with yearbook and ASB and doing all the events, just making sure this is the funnest time of their life, because after this they go out and become adults and don't know what hits them.

4. What does it mean to be the High School Teacher of the Month? I feel like it gives some validation to the long hours and events. ASB, all the kids give it a lot of grief because we can't please everyone all the time, but it just kind of reinforces that we're going in the right direction and doing the right things.
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