Teacher Feature

 Coach Barrett Keene

For the Teacher Feature of the Week, the newspaper team chose Coach Keene. Coach Keene has been teaching for three years as the sixth-grade Social Studies teacher and has also been the baseball coach for Jena Jr. High and Jena High School. Coach Keene decided to become a teacher because he always wanted to be a baseball coach.

Coach Keene’s favorite part about his job is being off during the summer. One fun fact about Coach Keene is that he played college baseball as a pitcher. His favorite things to do outside of school are play golf, watch the Marvel movies and series, and play video games. Coach Keene feels that he is best at playing and coaching baseball and playing golf.

Coach Keene’s favorite movie is Avengers: Endgame, and his favorite food is chicken parmesan. If he could travel anywhere, he would choose either Boston, Massachusetts, or Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Coach Keene’s favorite memory from teaching is dressing up as George Washington for Picture Day. However, his funniest memory was riding his e-bike to school. Coach Keene says that if he weren’t a teacher, he would be a physical therapist.

If Coach Keene could spend one day with a famous person, he would choose Tim Tebow. Finally, if there is one thing Coach Keene could tell his students, it would be to “go 110% in everything you do.”

-Mason Evans

Ms. Melanie McLendon

This week's teacher feature is Ms. McLendon. We visited her and asked ten questions. This year marks her eleventh year teaching, and if she weren't a teacher, she would be an archaeologist. She decided she wanted to be a teacher when she was seventeen years old because she was always the student who wanted to help other students learn. This year, she looks forward to getting to know her new students and having fun, engaging lessons. We asked her about her favorite things, and she said, "My favorite food is pizza and hamburgers, my favorite restaurant is Texas Roadhouse, and my favorite book is Mark of the Lion by Francine Rivers." She also said, "I am a big nerd for jigsaw puzzles." Ms. McLendon said the funniest thing that had ever happened in her class was when TJ was shaking his pretend maracas, and when she asked him what he was doing, he said, "You know... sriracha's." One thing that Ms. McLendon wants her students—new and old—to know is this: "Teaching taught me that struggling doesn't mean failing. Don't give up on yourself." Finally, Ms. McLendon wishes she could visit Rome for the Colosseum and Egypt for the Great Pyramids. 

--Addi Mitchell

Ms. Kayla Tolbert

For the Teacher Interview of the Week, we interviewed Ms. Tolbert. Ms. Tolbert has been an 8th-grade ELA teacher but decided to become a math interventionist for the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.

Ms. Tolbert decided to transition from teaching ELA to becoming a math interventionist because she originally taught math. When she was asked to make the change, she thought it would be the best decision for her career. At first, she was a little scared but was mostly excited. She was also worried about how she would create lessons because, unlike ELA, there are no lessons provided.

Her biggest surprise was how much busier math is compared to ELA. Ms. Tolbert thinks that the skills she developed from teaching writing in ELA will help her the most when teaching math. She mostly misses the reading aspect of ELA, which she doesn’t really get to do now that she is a math interventionist.

Ms. Tolbert says that having experience teaching different grade levels allows her to see the differences between them. Even though Ms. Tolbert says that the transition was worth it, the hardest part of the change has been working out a schedule.

The students had different responses to Ms. Tolbert’s new role. Some were happy, while others were sad. Ms. Tolbert’s advice to teachers looking to make a change is simple: “Give it a chance.” --Mason Evans