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Mr.Birkmeyer
Interviewed and written by Carli McMillen
Mr. Birkmeyer is the 8th grade Copper Team ELA teacher. He went to college at IUN and got a degree in Science Education. He has been teaching for eight years, but has worked in Merrillville for six years. He started teaching at River Forest Middle School and moved to Hobart High School. Now at Merrillville, Mr.Birkmeyer coaches the 7th grade basketball team and is in charge of his department and is team leader, which I believe means he works hard. He is great with kids, so great he worked as a youth pastor. Maybe one day, he wants to do elementary school gym class.
Mr. Birkmeyer has a wife and two kids. His oldest son's name is Lake and he's 12, and his youngest son’s name is Luke and he’s two. His wife runs a nonprofit for children with autism, which I think is very sweet. He has a beta fish named Shall Fin Shall.
In his spare time, he watches TV or plays video games. His favorite movie genre is action, which I personally like horror movies. At the moment he is playing the video game Hogwarts: Legacy. He speaks German, but I think it is kind of pointless unless he goes to Germany. His favorite food is spaghetti and his favorite drink is sweet tea. When he was little, he wanted to be a Ninja Turtle and I think that's very funny because secretly I think he still wants to be one. Maybe he should pursue this. His favorite animal is a penguin and if he could be any animal he would want to be a hippo which is very odd because a hippo is a very weird animal to want to be…
He goes to the gym five days a week. He gets up at four in the morning to go which means he works very hard on his physical well being. I think he is THE best teacher at Pierce and the most hard working on the Copper Team and I think a lot of kids would say the same.
Ms. Barber
Interviewed and written by Carli McMillen
Ms. Barber is the 7th grade Character Education(CE) teacher for all teams. She has been teaching for twelve years and has been working in Merrillville for fourteen years. Ms. Barber says pets are too much work and she prefers not to have any. I think a person should have at least one pet in their home to keep them company. However, she has two sons to keep her company, Jeremy and Blair. Jeremy is 21 years old and Blair is 16 years old.
She is a part of a lot of different things at Clifford Pierce Middle School including co-sponsor of the National Junior Honor Society, project manager for mentoring, Community Partners Mentoring Students, Business Department Head, PTO Parent Liaison, Webmaster, Friday School Supervisor, and PBIS committee member. I think she is very hard working and she helps the community a lot. She expressed that she loves teaching because she likes helping people through life and being there for people when they have nobody by their side.
Ms. Barber has a lot of hobbies including owning a skincare business called My Beautiful Wildflower, leading meditation with crystal singing bowls, singing, politics, learning new things, giving advice about relationships and getting away from red flags, and cooking. In her free time she likes to watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which she loves because it has dry humor or read The Matrix, which she expressed she likes because it predicted the future. I haven't read The Matrix but it seems very interesting. She also likes listening to music in her free time. Her favorite band and song is Thee Sacred Souls “Can I Call you Rose.” Ms. Barber is an amazing and caring teacher and she has helped so many people throughout the years.
Quote from Ms. Barber:
“Life is hard, it's challenging and not everyone has a support system.
I grew up without a support system, so what I enjoy the most about teaching is the opportunity to be to others what I myself never had so when I motivate and inspire my students or encourage them to go after the life of their dreams that's something I had to do for myself and by myself and I hope that it will make a difference.”
Mr. Polite
Interviewed and written by Imani Royal
Mr. Polite is an 8th grade Science teacher on the Blue Team. He has taught for ten years, was a principal for 17 years, and now he’s back teaching due to health conditions. This year is his first year here. Even though this is his first year here, he acts like he’s been here for a while. Now let’s get into his personal life. He has one dog and four cats. Mr. Polite has five children; four girls, one boy. His hobbies include exercising, listening to music, going to concerts, watching movies, and sports (mainly baseball). He currently is not a coach or advisor for any extracurricular activities, but in the past he coached cross country, track and field, and has been student council sponsor and class sponsor. One extra thing he’d like to add is that “he’s bald by choice.” He is a real comedian once you get to know him. Mr. Polite is an amazing Science teacher and I wish him the best.
Ms. Hairston
Interviewed and written by Annabel Cheney
Ms. Hairston is a 7th grade Silver Team teacher. She teaches English honors. This is her second year teaching at CPMS. Freshly out of college she became a teacher after previously working as a substitute teacher. Ms. Hairston does not have children although has two adorable fur babies/doggies; Roo and Winnie. Ms. Hairston enjoys crocheting, writing, and golfing. While doing this, she enjoys listening to Taylor Swift, Noah Khann, or Hozier! Her favorite colors are pink, blue, and/or green. I personally share these colors with her as favorites, as she has spectacular taste in colors. Lastly, Ms. Hairston’s favorite cartoon character is Dr. Doofenshmirtz from the hit show Phineas and Ferb. I personally believe that this is a great character. Overall, Ms. Hairston is a great teacher and she has amazing taste!
Ms. Henderson
Interviewed and written by Imani Royal
Ms. Henderson is the school’s teacher-librarian. She is also the Newspaper Club sponsor/advisor. I picked her to interview because while many students are aware that she is the librarian, they do not know more than that. I believed that Ms. H deserved her own interview. She has been married for two years, but she and her husband have been together for 15 years. Ms. Henderson does have a son who is one and a half years old. She has two adopted brothers that are both younger than her. I personally liked the fact that she still includes her brothers as her actual family, because that is what they are to her.
Ms. H has been teaching in Merrillville for 4 years. She taught ELA for seven years at the high school level and 6-8 grade before coming to Pierce. While she was teaching 6-8, she also ran Student Council, coached softball, volleyball, cheer, cross-country, and basketball. I found it cool that she coached all of those things and still had time to have family time. Her hobbies include reading, writing (she used to write short stories), and gardening. Ms. Henderson’s interests include being a huge Slash fan; she has a spare room that is filled with music memorabilia and she loves music and going to concerts. Halloween is Ms. Henderson’s favorite holiday. Fall is her favorite season. Ms. H’s favorite sports include softball and baseball. She would love to go back to Hawaii and swim with turtles again. My personal opinion is that summer’s my favorite season, therefore I would love to go to Hawaii as well. Ms. Henderson’s birthday is on September 16th.
She is actually from just outside southside Chicago. Ms. H went to Argo Community High School where she played softball, volleyball, tennis, and bowling. She was actually in Newspaper and was also on the National Honor Society. For college, Ms. Henderson went to Governors State University in University Park, IL for her Bachelors in English and her teaching certification. Then she went to Dominican University in River Forest, IL for her Masters in Library and Information Science.
A lot of the rock music and horror movies that Ms. Henderson loves are from the 80’s, however, Ms. H grew up in the 90’s and 2000’s and there was a lot of stuff that interested her when she was a kid. Ms. H’s favorite cartoons as a kid were: Garfield and Friends, Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy, Beavis and Butthead (when she was older). Now Ms. Henderson watches Bluey with her son and she says that the show is pretty great. Her two all time favorites that aren’t cartoons are: That 70’s Show and Supernatural. Personally, I really like Bluey because it’s very inclusive and shows kids how to resolve problems. She does not really have a favorite Marvel movie, but her favorite Marvel characters are Scarlet Witch, Loki, and Thor. Ms. Henderson is a very helpful person in general, and is personally my favorite teacher and librarian that I have had so far.
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