Katelyn Habina, a new teacher at Oakdale who teaches different histories, came at the end of the first semester of the 2021-2022 school year. After graduating from the University of Maryland, she started her teaching career online, taught in-person starting from the second semester of last school year, and is finally starting her full first year at Oakdale.

Habina adores history and turned her passion into a career. Her transition to in-person teaching was rough since she started teaching online. She appreciates the department for how welcoming they were to her.

Habina knew starting halfway through the school year would be difficult, but she felt supported. She expressed, “We have a good department and they made sure that I felt welcome and at home.”

The downside to the transition was that it was rough for Habina. “My student teaching was digital and all online, so I didn’t have a classroom experience other than being a student so it was definitely a rough transition.”

While it is only her second semester, she is enjoying her teaching at Oakdale, and seeing her students grow and understand concepts has been one of her greatest joys. She elaborates “I think when the student understands a concept and they like it, they dont they take a while and it’s confusing then it clicks like a lightbulb flick. And seeing that it’s the nicest thing.” She deeply treasures seeing her students come to her after a semester and wanting to talk.

Habina graduated from University of Maryland in the spring of 2021 with a double major in history and social studies secondary education. She joined Rho kappa in 2016 while she was still in high school and continued through college.

Habina’s students have said nothing but good things about her. Lauren Hnilo, a senior who is having Habina for the second semester in a row, expresses, “I thought she was very nice. She was very open and because of her age, it made me relate to her more.”

The highlight of Habinas career has been “Seeing kids coming back and even after the semester.” She enjoys talking to her students and continues to educate them. She also values students just coming back to talk to her even while she isn’t teaching them.