With her passion for science, Angela Spencer continues her 27 year-career as a biology teacher as a new teacher here at Oakdale. She was influenced by her own biology teacher to pursue her unexpected career in education “as before she wanted to go into pre-financing.”
As a child, Spencer wanted to be a veterinarian; however, once she entered college, she began studying pre-financing. Moreover, it wasn’t until she thought more about her own biology teachers recommending a different path that she eventually found her niche in teaching.
“Teaching is not for everyone. If your heart is not in it, then you’re not gonna do well with it,” she emphasized, sharing her lessons learned from teaching biology.
As someone works long enough, they end up learning lessons, Spencer’s biggest lesson learned “balances, working at home, that’s a big one, and then, just taking care of ourselves individually, because we put a lot into wanting to give our students our all, but we gotta take care of ourselves,” noted Spencer.
Ms.Spencer creates a positive and encouraging atmosphere in her classroom. She highlights the importance of not taking things personally and fosters an environment where students feel supported and motivated to excel. She provides interactive teaching methods to various learning styles. From hands-on experiments to group discussions, Spencer ensures that her students actively engage with the material.
“So we do our activity, so it’s either notes, or activity, like if we do notes, the notes don’t take very long, and we can move on to the activity afterward,” shared OHS sophomore, Jackson Burress.
“Never make assumptions about anything. Don’t take it personal. We all have our big days, we all have our bad days. Every day is a new day, so that’s a good thing, you get to start over.” voiced Spencer, who has learned to never assume someone’s skill level,.
“I really enjoy how we get to do a lot of hands on stuff,” Burress mentioned. “She is really nice,” and a “kind and involved teacher,” he ended.
Overall, Oakdale High School is very fortunate to have Ms. Spencer as a new teacher because of her kind and loving attitude. If she were to work here long enough, she can maybe influence her students like her teachers influenced her. Welcome to Oakdale, Ms Spencer!
