Q&A with my favorite teacher Mrs. Warner

By Natalee O.

My name is Natalee Ortiz. I'm going to be interviewing Ms. Warner because she is my favorite teacher at Airport High School. She's been there for me since my freshman year and has always been altruistic to me . The interview took place on Tuesday morning September 23 . I  had the opportunity to sit down with Mrs Warner , an experienced educator who teaches Business Law, Personal Finance, Entrepreneurship  and Fundamentals of Computing .Our Q&A session took place in her classroom.

Natalee : Ms. Warner, what are some things you look forward to this year and why?

Warner : I look forward to meeting new students, forward to meeting new students, helping them achieve their goals, and just trying to be there for them.

Natalee: How do you handle challenging students or classroom situations?

Warner:  I usually try to look at the whole situation, the student's home life, and then take the student aside and talk to them individually and see if there's anything I can help them with. 

And if that doesn't help, then contact mom or dad and see what's the best way that I can help them. 

Natalee: What are your favorite things to do outside of school?

Warner :  Reading and cooking Italian food. 

Natalee: Interesting, I love Italian food as well .

Natalee: What is the worst or best thing about being a teacher? 

Warner:  The worst thing is knowing that you can't help everybody and the best is being able to help as many students as you can. 

Natalee : What is a school sport or activity that you enjoy watching?

Warner:  Football, volleyball, track, softball, baseball. I like watching cheerleading. I like watching the dance team. Pretty much everything because a lot of my students have different various sports they're in, so I try to make at least one game that they attend where they play when they start.

Natalee: When is your birthday and what do you usually do to celebrate your birthday?

Warner: My birthday is February 9th and I usually like to just spend it with my family.

Natalee: How do you show your school spirit?

Warner : I dress up during themes. I usually go to the games and cheer on for my students and anything else I can do for them.

Natalee: When and why did you decide to become a teacher?

Warner: I've always wanted to be a teacher, but what really made me decide was when I was training statistical process control and my oldest person I had to train was 90 years old.

Natalee : Okay. Do you plan on teaching in the future? Why or why not?

Warner : Yes, at least until I retire because I love it. Watching a student grow from not understanding something to mastering it , or seeing them grow into more confident young adults , is deeply rewarding .

Natalee:  Okay. How do you prepare for the school year and plan lessons?

Warner: I usually plan lessons as soon as I find out what classes they are. I try to change them year to year. I try to make them more student-oriented, more fun, as much as I can depending on the class.

Natalee: What advice do you have for the students to succeed in your class ?

Warner: Just try if they try they’ll succeed  

Natalee : What are your pet peeves as a teacher and why?

Warner: I hate it when teachers talk about students that they had in the year prior if they're in my class because they don't see how students grow in the summer where they grow from semester

Natalee: What is your favorite book and why? 

Warner: Oh, my God.I have too many. I've already read 300 books so far this year. I like any kind of supernatural book, and I just, you know, enjoy getting out of my head, you know, from day-to-day things. So I don't have one favorite book. I have an author that’s  my favorite, you know, Eva Chase.

Natalee: What do you like most about teaching business law? 

Warner: I like changing it from a dry subject to be more fun. This summer I revamped the whole business law curriculum and I'm doing more projects and changing them up in different units. Every year I get to change it to make it more student learning .

Natalee: Describe one of your worst teaching days and why you dislike that day.

Warner: We all have our days. The worst teaching day could be, you know, when students just don't want to learn and no matter how much you try, you know, they're just not going to learn so we just kind of work to try  something different if that's the case .

Natalee: That's all, Thank you.

Thank you to Mrs Warner for taking the time to share a little bit about her . One of the  biggest takeaways  from our conversations was her belief in the potential  of every student and success as long as they are willing to try . Mrs Warner's response to helping students succeed is a reminder behind all the squealing and prompting is a teacher who truly cares. Let this be a call to action for all of us to appreciate our teachers and recognize that at the end of the day they are just trying to help .