{"id":142,"date":"2010-11-03T16:12:56","date_gmt":"2010-11-03T16:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=142"},"modified":"2014-04-07T07:16:50","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T12:16:50","slug":"four-new-teachers-make-plymouth-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=142","title":{"rendered":"Four New Teachers Make Plymouth Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Matthew Libersky<\/em><\/p>\n

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Ms. Kristen Dorland recently began teaching English in Plymouth. Photo by: Matthew Libersky<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/em>Moving to a new school can be stressful as a student, but one can only imagine the hard work it takes to teach at a completely new school.<\/p>\n

Four new teachers have joined the Plymouth High School staff as the result of various teachers\u2019 retirements and relocations. The English, Agriculture, History, and Physical Education departments have all gained one teacher each over the summer.<\/p>\n


\nIt is safe to say they had a hectic summer.
\nMs. Kristen Dorland joined the Language Arts department with Mrs. Melissa DeFord\u2019s leave of absence. Prior to her employment here, she completed her student teaching experience in Warsaw Community Schools. Before that, she completed her degree in English Education at Grace College in Winona Lake, a town near Warsaw, Indiana.
\nPrior to moving to Indiana, she worked as an insurance agent in Evart, Michigan, a small town in northern Michigan. After she completed her degree, she moved to Warsaw, and worked as a student teacher in Warsaw. After she completed her student teaching experience, she began the process of familiarizing herself with the policies of Plymouth High School and putting together her lesson plans.
\n\u201cThe experiences I had while working in my room preparing for the first day of school really set the tone for my experience here,\u201d Ms. Dorland said. \u201cMany teachers and administrators stopped in to say hello, welcome me to Plymouth High School, and offered to help or answer any questions. I already felt like part of the team.\u201d
\nMs. Dorland currently teaches two classes \u2013 ninth grade English and ninth grade English Lab. In the future, she will also teach eleventh grade English. Though she has a hard time choosing a favorite class, she said English Lab is interesting because it is smaller group and she can design her instruction \u201ca little more specifically to help my students. We have a lot of fun in that class.\u201d
\nOverall, she said she most enjoys teaching literature and grammar.
\nShe arrives at school around 7 A.M. after commuting a half-hour from Warsaw. From there, she prepares her classroom for the day \u2013 updating the white board and setting out materials that students need that day. She also checks her e-mail and drinks a cup of coffee. From there it\u2019s teaching classes, and if she gets any free time she uses it to grade, read, and plan.<\/p>\n

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Mr. John Kozlovich is Plymouth\u2019s new World History teacher. Photo by: Matthew Libersky<\/p><\/div>\n

She said the most memorable and enjoyable thing about teaching at the end of the day is the students.\u00a0 She \u201cloves getting to know them, learning about their personalities and interests, and watching them achieve success [\u2026]. When a student can not wait to tell me about his\/her soccer game or the quiz he\/she just aced, it makes [me happy].\u201d
\nThe Physical Education department also had a new staff member join their team \u2013 Mr. Mike Kershner. Mr. Kershner has experience teaching in Plymouth \u2013 he taught P.E. at the elementary level for the previous 10 years. He taught at Menominee Elementary School during each of those years, as well as\u00a0\u00a0 Washington and Jefferson occasionally.
\nIt was not a tough move.
\n\u201cAll I\u00a0 really had to do was move my teaching materials from the elementary schools to the high school. Also, I had to look at and go over the Health and P.E. curriculum,\u201d Mr. Kershner said.
\nHe had to get used to the difference in schedules \u2013 in elementary school, he only taught the same students two times per week. Now, he sees the same people everyday, for 70 minute periods. While possibly exhausting, he said it gives him more time to connect with and get to know his students.
\n\u201cI enjoy getting to know them and trying to impact their life in a positive way,\u201d Mr. Kershner said.
\nHe currently teaches two periods of Physical Education, and one period of Health. He said that Health \u2013 a subject that he did not teach at the elementary schools \u2013 is interesting to teach because it is an everyday subject and he gets to know his students on a personal level during the class.
\nWith the retirement of Mr. Larry McCollough, the Agriculture department was also left with an open position. Ms. Kelli Hoffman was chosen to fill that spot. Before she began teaching here, she was completing her student teaching experience at Manchester High school in North Manchester, Indiana. After graduating from college, she taught at Clinton Central High School, a school in a small town between Lafayette, Indiana and Kokomo, Indiana. Before that, she filled in for a teacher on maternity leave at Lebanon High School, northwest of Indianapolis, Indiana.
\n\u201cI spent the entire summer writing lesson plans for the new classes I\u2019d be teaching,\u201d Ms. Hoffman said. \u201cI also spent over one week cleaning out my classroom and shop.\u201d
\nShe teaches three different classes this trimester (four total), and she said that preparing for all them is no easy task \u2013 especially when she hasn\u2019t had the chance to prepare lesson plans in the past. \u201cIn agriculture, we [do not] have cookie cutter lessons \u2013 we must create and design everything,\u201d Ms. Hoffman said.
\nShe teaches Agricultural Mechanics, Advanced Life Science, and Fundamentals of Agriculture \u2013 though she said that she is licensed to teach 13 different subject areas in Agriculture.
\nOut of all those classes, she most looks forward to Advanced Life Science because the upperclassmen in the class work hard to learn the tough material\u2013and she has to work hard to keep current with the ALS curriculum.
\nThe Social Studies department also had a new staff member join the department over the summer. Mr. John Kozlovich was hired two weeks before the start of school to replace Mr. Russ Teall, who retired from teaching after nearly 40 years. Before working here, Mr. Kozlovich was working as a graduate assistant, which allowed him to earn his master\u2019s degree in History and teaching certification simultaneously. Prior to attending Ball State University, he completed his degree from the University of Wisconsin \u2013 Superior in 2004.
\nHe currently only teaches one class \u2013 World History \u2013 but that seems to keep him busy enough as he had only two weeks to prepare lessons and material for his class. \u201cThe best preparation strategy, I\u2019ve found, is to get in early and set a clear agenda,\u201d Mr. Kozlovich said.
\nThough he has taught U.S. History in the past, he said that teaching only World History provides for more variety \u2013 it encompasses a wider variety of subjects and cultures, rather than just the U.S.
\n\u201cI love [having] the opportunity to illuminate and connect the dots for students who have not thought about History. [\u2026] It\u2019s an enlightening experience.\u201d
\nWhile working as a Graduate Assistant at Ball State University, he was tasked with running study sessions, grading papers and tutoring students one-on-one \u2013 which all helped him prepare for teaching in high school. Though he always knew that he might want to teach, his experience as a G.A. made him more certain that he wanted to teach and help children learn the concepts rather than researching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Matthew Libersky Moving to a new school can be stressful as a student, but one can only imagine the hard work it takes to teach at a completely new school. Four new teachers have joined the Plymouth High School … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-school-news","tag-october-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":473,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}