Over the past few months, Oakdale has gained many new teachers. This year, we are welcoming 10 teachers to our community, one of which is Chanin Storm, who teaches English 9 and FCC English 101.

Storm started teaching in 2013. She previously taught at colleges, and with home-school co-ops, teaching everything from elementary through graduate level English classes. She noted, “It was really nice to come to some place that was innovative rather than stuck in the last century.” She claims that she prefers a place that tries new things, which Oakdale encourages.

Surprisingly, Storm never enjoyed English when she was in school: “English was not my thing, that didn’t happen until about 10 years after I started college and I started realizing I loved writing.” Later adding that it wasn’t until taking 2 different college classes, and writing different stories of her own, that she noticed she enjoyed English.

After finding out she enjoyed writing short stories, Storm moved on to writing longer stories. Once realizing that she enjoyed writing, she decided to teach. She says she was inspired by many authors, such as “Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, H.P Lovecraft, Ernest Hemmingway, Sylvia Plath…”

Gabe Long, a Junior at Oakdale and a former student of Storm’s, commented, “I think I learn best in a setting where a lot of the learning is independent and I believe she fulfilled that through giving a multitude of work that for the most part required no teacher intervention.”

Long also quotes, “Well, I have only had three English teachers so far but I think she’s the best I’ve had for a full semester.” Storm has made teaching English very enjoyable for Long as well as many other students.

“My favorite part was being able to choose any book within reason for a project.” Long stated. Storm has done a wonderful job of allowing students to be creative with their works, and giving them an opportunity to show their ideas through their writing.

Storm mentioned that she has had a great experience with Oakdale so far: “I absolutely love it here, it has been an incredible experience, and I love coming to work everyday.”

Storm has had a great time working at Oakdale, and can’t wait to see how it progresses. She concludes, “I love meeting with students and working with them. Teaching here is a wonderful experience and I’m glad I did it.”