THE ECHO

by Drew Paradise

In a setting where the boundary between student and teacher is strictly important, the connection between the two parties can be strained. It isn’t always like that, however. Along their high school careers, many students will have a few especially memorable teachers who they truly connect with. Carolyn Kroeker is one of many beloved Avon High School teachers, but she still manages to stick out among her good company. Mrs. Kroeker’s ability to make herself seem like a human being is one of her hallmarks as a teacher, and I caught up with her in an interview to learn more about what kind of human being she is.

Photo by Drew Paradise

I just found out that you’ve been nominated for Teacher of the Year, is this your first time being nominated?

No; I was actually nominated last year. But this is the first time I’ve made it to the final round, which is cool.

And how many years have you been here now?

Five. Avon was actually my first teaching job, I did my student teaching in a small town up north.

What was student teaching in a small town like versus full-time here in the burbs?

It was a very interesting experience. It was quite a small school, which meant that there wasn’t much administrative support. When problems came up, there wasn’t a lot of help for teachers, which was hard. I had to figure out a lot on my own; more than I would have liked to as a student teacher.

Do you feel like the administration supports you more here?

I have been amazed with how well the admin at Avon balances being present without having a chokehold on the school. They’re super supportive and available when we need them, but they treat us like professionals and trust us to do our jobs. That’s a hard balance, so I appreciate all that they do to help us stay sane.

What’s your favorite book to teach?

We’re reading  Fahrenheit 451 in tenth grade right now, it’s really fun. Since it’s a dystopia about, like, technology making us apathetic and not engaging with boredom or imagination it feels very relevant to me.

And do your students resonate with that?

 Yeah, they do. Last class we were talking about this – a lot of them had said early in the year that they wouldn’t really care if books didn’t exist. And I’m like Right, because you have the internet, but, like, what if we didn’t have any meaningful content? What if you didn’t get to learn anything meaningful and it was just brainrot instead. They all thought that sounded terrible. But that’s exactly what’s happening in Fahrenheit 451.

I know you really enjoy The Crucible too.

It’s so good! I love diving into the Salem witch trials. It’s just delightful and dramatic and very petty. There’s lots of characters you can hate on.

And that’s something we all love to do.

Yes, wholeheartedly.

I think one of the most divisive high school topics is the dichotomy  of the “English kids” and the “math kids.” I’ve heard English teachers say it can be a constant uphill battle to get math or science kids to not hate your class, but I’ve seen you make it work before. How do you do it?

A lot of it is just building relationships with your students. A great way to do that is through humor, keeping things light. In teaching it’s kind of a cliché, almost a negative thing, to say “oh, just build a relationship with the kids,” because it’s very overused. But at the core of it, what we do is just building relationships. Forming a rapport with students early on is what ends up making the biggest difference for them. Because really, whether students like or hate your subject area, the biggest factor in whether or not they’re going to be engaged is whether they like or hate you. That’s the most important thing.