Transferring over from Lebanon Trail High School, Kassidy Scott is one of more than a dozen new teachers on campus. Scott loves all different types of history and has been teaching for five years, and this year, she is teaching students in AP Human Geography.
Wingspan: Who inspired you to start teaching?
Scott: “Honestly, I did have somebody that inspired me to start teaching and it wasn’t my favorite teacher, it was probably the worst teacher I ever had. He was a World History teacher and I had him in high school and he was a basketball coach and he didn’t know the material, he didn’t care to know the material; he was just there to coach basketball. It made me want to make sure that I wasn’t like that and to make sure I was putting effort into my students and they can give effort into me. I just think those experiences helped shape my teaching.”
Wingspan: What has been your favorite part about working here and can you name specific examples?
Scott: “I have loved getting to know my students and my fellow staff members. They have truly made the experience so fun. I [also] love talking to the kids. A lot of them are really curious and asking a bunch of different kinds of questions that normally I wouldn’t think about. They also come to my advisory and they just hang out with me and just ask me questions over the material so we can talk about it. I find those situations to be very enjoyable and just being able to bond with the kids like that.”
Wingspan: Have you taught other subjects and grades? If so, what subjects and grades? If not, what grades/subjects do you think would be interesting to teach?
Scott: “I have taught 8th Grade U.S. History, 10th grade World History, and AP Human Geography. I would love to teach AP U.S. History because I love American history.”
Wingspan: What is your favorite type of history and why?
Scott: “Honestly, I love American history because I think it’s super important for kids to know, especially with the way the country is going and to be informed about different types of events because I think it makes for kids to be productive members of society and knowing your history keeps you from repeating it. So American History is just so fun because I also view it as a reality show in real life.”
Wingspan: What is the most difficult part of teaching students?
Scott: “I think kids, they’re just social butterflies, and they come to school, feel comfortable with who they are and [they’re] with their friends and everything and it can get kind of hard to make them focus, but for the most part they’re good kids. I don’t have any attitude problems, so that’s really good. [It’s] just getting them to focus on their work and keeping their attention span can be kind of difficult, but other than that, they’re really good [and] I have no complaints.”
Wingspan: How have the subjects you teach translate into your daily life and how can that also be implemented in your students’ lives?
Scott: “I think, especially Human Geography, as it being the first year teaching the subject, I didn’t realize how insightful it could be considering that it shows why people are the way they are, why they’re settling the way that they are, why the interactions between humans are the way that they are; it just gives insight to why things are the way they are. I use it in my daily life because, especially looking around the real world [and] around history and how people are settled and how people live, it just becomes super helpful whenever it comes to real life examples. I also teach World History and it’s really interesting. World War 1 and World War 2, and how that affects our society [and] government today.
Wingspan: If you could give one piece of meaningful advice to a student in your class, what would it be?
Scott: “Honestly, be respectful and try hard in class. That will go a long way.”
