We’re introducing you to our TCS teachers! Click here to go to the TCS blog to see the other teachers we’ve profiled.
Today, we’re introducing you to Theresa Watkins, second-grade teacher!
This is Theresa’s fourteenth year at TCS. Three of those years were in third grade, nine were in 4’s/5’s, and this is her second year in second grade! Before TCS, she taught at Special Sprouts in Brooklyn, NY.
What skills do you hope your students will learn by the time they leave your classroom? How are you preparing them to learn these skills?
I want the kids to know how to be kind to each other and understand that they are a part of wide, wide world that they can have an impact on. Our morning meeting activities involve activities that require us to work together, and we talk a lot about our class being a team and how important it is to help and support each other
What about teaching makes you excited to come to school every day?
I have my lesson plan and I’m prepared to teach what’s on it, but I love when my students take us down a path that wasn’t in the plan and I learn something new.
Tell us about one of the most rewarding moments in your teaching career.
I was teaching special needs 3-to-5-year-olds in New York, and it was time for the end-of-year performance and celebration for my 12 students. We practiced for weeks, and when the big day came the children did an exceptional job. They were so happy and proud of themselves. My two co-teachers and I were thrilled. It was hard to find a dry eye in the audience.
If you could meet any fictional or historical figure, who would it be?
Harriet Tubman, Michael Jackson and Muhammad Ali (sorry, but I can’t just pick one)
What is something none of your students know about you?
I was raised by my grandparents in New York while my parents raised my six older siblings in South Carolina.
