I started off as a high school English teacher. I did that for 10 years, and then I worked in an elementary library for 11 years. Now I work for GO CAPS, and I teach for Launch—over the summer I taught ACT Prep, and this semester I’m teaching English IV.

Building relationships with my students is important to me. I have a spreadsheet to help me keep track of everyone, and I try to put some personal notes in it so I think of who my students are as people. Since my classes require a lot of writing, I also try to keep feedback as specific and as helpful as it can be. I’m trying to make it worth their while, really.

Last summer—before I found out I was hired for Launch—my family had planned a 25-day road trip along the east coast. That’s something our family likes to do—we have a travel trailer, and we’ve used it to go across the country multiple times. But I really wanted to teach for Launch, so when I learned I was hired to teach ACT Prep I decided I was going to make it work. And that’s what I did. Before we would stop, I would have to make sure I had a data connection. We were busier than we thought we were going to be—on a lot of our travels, we’ll get back to our trailer and have time in the evenings to relax, but we were busier on this trip—but I would set aside ‘work time’ and we would sit down and work. It was nice because my son was taking some online classes, too, and we’d sit down together and work in the morning or in the evening.

I did a few video announcements from some of the places we visited, too, which was fun. We were touring colleges with my son, so I recorded an announcement at Cornell and an announcement at the Brown University campus. This was fun, especially since I was teaching ACT Prep and the kids in my courses were looking towards college.

I really like the innovation of Launch. Education is kind of in transformation right now—schools have to figure out how to meet this new generation of kids and meet their needs in personalized ways. It’s not going to look the same for every kid. I think it’s neat that Launch exists and provides an opportunity for kids no matter where they are—it gives them a chance to learn on their own and in their own way.