March is Women’s History Month and March 8 is International Women’s Day. To celebrate while commemorating an outstanding teacher, a poll was taken asking students who their most inspirational female teacher is. Mrs. Sara Thompson won.

Q: What classes do you teach?

A: “So I have the Senior AP Literature. I teach Freshman CP English and Senior CP English,” Thompson said.

Q: When did you come to Badin?

A: “I’ve been here 17 years. Since 2004,” Thompson said.

Q: Why did you decide to become an English teacher?

A: “I love stories. I like reading stories with people, talking about stories with people, and I think language is fascinating: the way we can communicate, how we can embed so many different meanings in our language, and how beautiful that can be. I like to look at that with people and kinda analyze that with people. I think that’s very interesting,” Thompson said.

Q: How do you prepare kids for college?

A: “I’m trying to teach them how to read very closely, so that they can handle any kind of text a professor would give them whether it’s an article or a chapter in a textbook or a poem or speech or a book,” Thompson said. "What are the strategies you can use to really understand what you’re looking at in context. How the author is creating meaning in it. And I also want to be able to give them the confidence to say what they mean when they write.”

Q: What are your responsibilities as the English Department Chair?

A: “We have meetings and we meet and discuss what are the important changes perhaps we have to make this year and we have to qualify what kind of novels everybody needs to have, you know business stuff,” Thompson said. “Currently, what we’re working on in the English Department together as a group is we’re trying to do our curriculum maps to set for the whole year for each grade: where we want to begin the students and what kind of curriculum we want to take them all the way through so that we can develop the skills that they need to be successful.”

Q: What’s your favorite in-class memory with a student?

A: “My favorite thing to do is talk about books with kids. To kinda like converse with them and get their dialect. My second favorite runner-up thing to do with kids is conference with them individually, one-on-one, just to talk about their paper and tell them what they’re doing really really well and talk about what they can do even better,” Thompson said.

Q: Who is your favorite author/book?

A: “There are certain books that have been very challenging and I think I’ve come to a deeper understanding of each time of year, so I have to say King Lear with Shakespeare. It’s probably what the students dread the most, but what I enjoy the most with them. I never get bored with Shakespeare,” Thompson said. “Personal favorite book that I read almost every other year is Pride and Prejudice. I like Jane Austen. She’s got style. She has tremendous style. I think she’s so witty. It’s so understated, she’s not in her face.”

Q: What is your view on women empowerment?

A: “I’m all for it of course. Women have always had a major role in society, but not always an acknowledged role. We have many tremendous gifts and capabilities as women,” Thompson said.

Q: Who are important female figures in your life?

A: There’s a lot here at Badin. A lot of my female colleagues are really important to me. They’re amazing. They inspire me. They work hard. Women often juggle jobs and kids. We have to prioritize and share that burden with each other a lot of the time. Outside in my personal experience, both my sisters are really important to me. My mother of course. Important women that I think are amazing include Margaret Thatcher. She’s kickass. You can quote me on that one. Slyvia Plath has got beautiful writing. It’s just beautiful and it’s different. There’s a modern poset that I like a lot, Naomi Shihab Nye has such a positive message in her poetry,” Thompson said. “Taylor Swift does kinda kick some butt. Taylor Swift is a wonderful storyteller. I think if you talk about someone who wants to empower women, I think Taylor Swift is a great example of that as well.”

Q: If you could tell your female students one thing, what would it be?

A: “I would tell them how important it is to have their own agency. To own what they think. To be honest about it. So many women want to please so many people. We want to make people happy. We want to keep the peace. And you can do that, but still speak your mind and be responsible and be original,” Thompson said. “Be powerful. Don’t feel you need to be dismissed because you’re female. You should not feel that it’s ok to be dismissed because it’s not.”