Courtney Young, Instructional Coach

Q: How did your role end up being changed?

A: So I was a teacher, a math teacher, then the position became available for the Instructional Coach…so I applied and I interviewed. Then I was offered the position at the end of the school year last year.

Q: Where were you before this?

A: I was here, I was just teaching algebra. I was mostly ninth grade, some tenth grade, now I’m six through twelve.

Q: Where did you go to college?

A: I got my undergrad from Truman State University in Kirksville. I got my degree in accounting, then I went back to Lindenwood, years later, and got my masters in teaching…It was specialization in secondary mathematics, so nine through twelve.

Q: What are your long-term goals for the students here at GCAA?

A: I think probably every educator’s long-term goal is to see the students be successful in whatever career, path, they choose. I’m included in that. I know that everybody has different talents, different specialization, different gifts, and different abilities, and so for me it’s just doing what I can to foster that but also seeing kids help each other out, support each other. I would love to see kindness continue to be a really big push for everybody, and acceptance. But ultimately, I want people to be successful in what they want to be doing, and proud of their achievements.

Q: What are you looking forward to with this new role?

A: I’m looking forward to supporting students and teachers in a different way. When I was working as a teacher, I just had a certain group of students, now I get to work with all the students, I get to work with all the teachers. And one of the things I like about this job is that when there are little changes, I can help fix them. In any job there’s going to be things that kind of pop up, that you need support you know… I was at a different school, and I saw that this position existed, and I just felt like it fit my personality a lot, because I like being able to be behind the scenes and help things get going.

Q: What is something you think we don’t talk about enough?

A: I think we talk some about how to care for each other, I think there is talk that we need to do that, but I don’t think there’s enough talk on how to do that…I guess I would like to continue to see more talk on how do we support each other.

Q: What is a lesson you are still learning?

A: Time management I think is something that I will always learn. I was always a procrastinator as a kid. I think something I have really learned to do well is prioritize, but I think when you get into a new job, there are a lot of things that come up that your don’t expect or that your don’t know, and so it’s learning how to do that new job then figuring out, out of all the things that exist in that, what’s most important and how do you do your job your best. So for me I would say that’s what I’m learning right now.

Q: If you could have the answer to any question, what would you want to know?

A: I would say instead of knowing the answers to the questions, to have the knowledge for myself, I’d want to know, for whatever the answers are, how to encourage other people to do the things that the answers are. Maybe the answer to the question ‘How do you motivate people? How do you get people to believe in themselves?’, and then figure out a way to get that done.