Hannah Rodgers is an English language teacher at Homewood High School. In this interview, she talks about some educators who inspired her and what she loves about teaching English language.
Q: How long have you been a teacher and what subject do you teach?
A: I have been teaching since 1997. I've taught a variety of subjects: theater, speech, English language arts, sixth grade social studies, sixth grade earth science, English as a foreign language when I taught overseas.
I currently teach EL, English language. It is formally known as ESL, English as a second language.
Q: What inspired you to become an educator?
A: I come from a family of educators. My mom is a retired high school English teacher, and, when I was little, she used to take me to her classes and I just remember being fascinated with the whole thing.
Q: Tell us about your favorite teacher from when you were in school.
A: Two people come to mind. The first is Ms. Perena. She was my tenth grade world history teacher. She's Filipino just like me. She really helped me see that there's so much about me to be proud of.
The second one is Mr. Taylor. He was my yearbook teacher. He helped me to transition into an American school.
Q: What is the most rewarding part of being a teacher?
A: I teach a lot of students who are new to the English language, and it's absolutely wonderful to see them go through the process of learning English—becoming bilingual, becoming multilingual—because it comes with this empowerment and this growing sense of self-confidence and pride in themselves.
