By Alexia Poloski – Staff Reporter

Mrs. Evans teaches freshman, sophomore, and senior year English classes this year – her first year at Law. Evans is always eager to help and encourage students to do their best work. Advocate Staff Reporter Alexia Poloski interviewed Evans about her career as an English teahcer.

Alexia Poloski: What made you want to be a teacher?

Mrs. Evans: During my senior year in college, I was hanging out with two of my friends who were in the School of Education at Boston College. As an English major, I was in the School of Arts & Sciences. I found that I appreciated their assignments more than they did and spent hours with them working on their final projects. This confirmed something I had thought about since sixth grade when I had Ms. Donovan as my English teacher. I think she was one of the first people to compliment my performance in English class. This, clearly, came at a pivotal time in my life. I didn’t know it at the time, but I wanted to replicate that: encourage students to see themselves as capable and worthy. 

AP: Why do you think it is really important for teachers to care about their students ?

ME: I don’t think I fully understand the question. Of course we have to care about you. Authentically caring about our students is the most essential facet of teaching. That’s the only way students learn…if they know their teachers care about them. I want my students to know that I deeply care about them, their well-being, their passions, their day-to-day lives, their beliefs, their families, their outside-of-school worlds. If they respect me, we can learn and grow together. 

AP: What do you enjoy about being an English teacher?

ME: Can I be just a little lame for a minute and tell you I enjoy everything about being an English teacher (yes, even the grading)? Teaching English, in particular, provides teachers with an avenue to get to know their students quite well. Students express themselves verbally and in writing and we have infinite resources to teach with. What I mean is we can read everything and talk about everything. Students can agree, disagree, argue, and learn from each other. It’s super fun for me to watch my students grow as thinkers as the year progresses. 

AP: How do you motivate students to do their best?

ME: Motivating students – when they have countless other things they’d rather be doing – has gotten more difficult but I think all students, all people for that matter, want to be seen and heard. So, I do just that: I see them and I hear them. I try to acquiesce to their needs and give them the space they need to become more thoughtful readers, writers, thinkers, and humans. 

AP: Your students say that you make learning really fun. What inspires and motivates you to do that?

ME: Hmm…how do I make learning fun and what inspires me to do that? That one is easy, I think. You do. My students inspire me every day. I think society underestimates young people. In many ways, I find teenagers more intriguing and insightful than some adults even. I think it has something to do with youth and hope. I stay motivated because students are most deserving…deserving of teachers who truly care about them. And here at Jonathan Law it is clear that teachers truly care about students.