Mrs. Grosskopf

When I got assigned to write the Teacher Spotlight, I wasn’t sure who I was going to write about but I decided on a teacher who made me fall in love with a subject that at first seemed daunting. Mrs. Grosskopf has been teaching Regents Chemistry and IB Physics at Kenmore West for 10 years and got her degree at Buffalo State College. Originally she didn’t want to become a teacher but started tutoring other students in Chemistry while at Buffalo State College and realized that she loved to work with children as well. When I asked Mrs.Grosskopf why she wanted to teach what people call the “hard sciences” at two different levels, she told me “I have always been interested in how the world works and love to answer the question of why something is the way it is.” 

Mrs. Grosskopf met fellow Kenmore West teacher Mr. Davies while babysitting his children. When Mrs. Grosskopf told Mr. Davies about how she wanted to become a teacher, he helped her get a student teaching job at Hoover Middle.  When the job for a Chemistry teacher opened up at Kenmore West, Mrs. Grosskopf applied and got it. Over the years she developed a system of fake money that her students could use in class. Originally coming from the “West Best” tickets, Mrs. Grosskopf created the “Omzaing Tickets,” fake money that her students could use to earn prizes. For her IB Physics students then later created “Chem Cash” for her Regents Chemistry students. I asked Mrs. Grosskopf how she came up with some of the prizes, like getting candy, asking a teacher a question on a quiz or test, earning a free homework pass. She told me “I changed the prizes from the student feedback I got and what other teachers recommended to me.” 

When Mrs. Grosskopf started to teach both juniors and seniors in her IB Physics class, she allowed her IB seniors to paint on the back of her wall. She heard about other teachers letting seniors paint ceiling tiles and had a huge blank back wall so she allowed her students to paint something that reflects their time of being an IB Physics student. Another thing Mrs. Grosskopf has integrated with her IB seniors is building rockets at the end of the year. They will, in small groups, build rockets and shoot them off, with rocket launchers from Buffalo State College, to see who is most effective in keeping a raw egg safe. The group who has the least damaged egg is deemed the winner. When I asked Mrs. Grosskopf what made her want to do the project every year with her students, she said  “It helps my students have fun with science and includes the element of engineering which you have to do a lot in physics.”

Every year, Mrs. Grosskopf brings in a poster board for each one of her classes and asks her students to write on the board and whenever Mrs.Grosskopf is having a rough day, she will look at the boards and remind herself why she loves to teach in the first place. The final questions I asked Mrs. Grosskopf were what are some of her favorite memories from teaching and what main goal does she have whenever a new school year begins? She replied, “A main goal I have is making students like chemistry and physics and have happy memories looking back on the class. I want to make my students feel like I cared about them when I taught them. A memory I have is always having students in my room at every moment of the day. I'm very happy that I have made my classroom into a safe place that they can come to throughout the day.” 

I believe that Mrs. Grosskopf has completed the goals she has set for herself each year because without me being in her Chemistry class, I would have never realized I love chemistry and want to use it in my future occupation. She has forged bonds with so many students here at Kenmore West I believed she was the candidate for the Teacher Spotlight.