Takisha Wallace, high school science
Q: What classes do you teach?
A: I teach chemistry, biology, advanced biology, and as well as genetics.
Q: Why did you choose GCAA?
A: I chose GCAA because the performing arts as well as teaching a subject, and I wanted to be able to integrate, eventually once I learn the students and the confluence curriculum, how I can better assist the children in a cultural environment of arts…”
Q: Where were you before this?
A: Before this, I taught for five years at the state of Tennessee. And then I was a social worker supervisor for Child Protective Services for six years, after leaving the classroom. And I know education has always been my passion so I went back to teaching.
Q: What’s your long-term goal for your students?
A: My long-term goal for the students is to be a life-long learner, such as continuing understanding that the process never ends. Even as an adult, as an educator, I have to continue to be a life-long learner, and if we limit our thought process, we can never continue to flourish in life.
Q: What are you looking forward to here at GCAA?
A: Actually learning the different students, and what they enjoy, and seeing the light bulb effect. Once they grasp the knowledge or the content”
Q: What is something you don’t think we talk about enough?
A: I think the outside world, and how it affects the learning environment. The students don’t get a chance to actually integrate that inside the lessons, and I think that’s what I try to do when I first came here, get to know my students and learn them first. But a lot of my students were ready to go right into the content, but now I know a little bit about them, know what their dislikes, their flaws, their facial expressions, and their moods. Like I can tell different things about them, and that’s what I want to be able to bring into the content and the classroom. Not just learning their learning styles, and what they like, but I want to know them as a person and how the outside culture affects their inside culture when it comes to the learning environment.
Q: When was the last time you felt real excitement and passion in your work?
A: I think on a daily basis, because you get to see different things from different students. Some students, they come in, you never expect to see them at the level that they are at, but to see a person rise a grasp the content and say ‘Yes, I got it”, that excitement is a thrill to me as a person, not just even as a teacher. Because, before anything, after becoming a mother, you never change wanting to see someone grow. The child may not have come from you once you birthed them, but once a parent places their child in your classroom, they’re yours to protect, nourish, and grow. And so everything that I have within me, I want to see them flourish.