Newton High welcomes new teachers throughout building
With the departure of a variety of teachers following the 2018-19 school year, Newton High School has welcomed 21 new faces in subjects ranging from mathematics to agriculture. Each addition to staff is accompanied by a unique past, including childhood, employment history and teaching experience.
“Each person brings their own unique talents, so I think we have hired really good teachers. It’s a good blend of teachers from brand new teachers to experienced teachers,” principal Lisa Moore said.
As for the transition into high school, each new teacher is partnered with a “building buddy”, with the purpose to help build a relationship with another teacher usually within the same subject. Business teacher Jessica Crabtree is buddies with two new teachers within her department.
“As a building buddy, we just support them in any way we need. It is to answer questions on those rough days where, you know, things may be crazy, and they come in going, ‘Oh my gosh what is happening?’ and so you just support them by saying, ‘Hey, you got this’,” Crabtree said.
For the majority of new staff members, the halls of NHS are merely a change in scenery since they have had previous experience in either different schools, districts or states. English teacher Kynda Faythe previously worked as an educator in both southeast Kansas, as well as at Wichita South. One factor played a large role in Faythe’s relocation to USD 373: trauma-informed.
“I love that we’re trauma-informed. The first thing when I interviewed, I asked ‘Hey, what is your discipline? Like how do we do that?’. Mrs. Moore, the first thing that came out of her mouth, was ‘You better love your kids’ and that’s completely different,” Faythe said. “That was a polar opposite mindset and overall a different viewpoint.”
On the contrary, there are multiple additions to staff with no prior teaching experience including business/computers teachers Chase Camarena, Amanda Gillespie and Julia Beaver, English teacher Sarah Hulsig and French teacher Sarah Ouis. Beaver said that coming from the corporate world has been a big adjustment.
“It’s just getting used to being around so many students and everyone since I came from a little cubical of not talking to anyone, but it’s been really exciting and interesting everyday. It’s a good adjustment,” Beaver said.
Moore said she looks forward to this school year as the teachers bring a new energy to the building, increasing the positivity of the environment.
“They [the new teachers] just have great ideas and I go into their classrooms and I am just like, ‘Oh my gosh, it looks so cute,’” Moore said. “Then you go into lots of other new classrooms and they look like little pinterest classrooms and you are like, “They have so many cool ideas’.”