By Leeya Bar-Lev, NHS Member

Ms. Springstead, a second-year Fair Lawn High School teacher, pursues her teaching career as an English teacher. Her classes include English 11 CP, 11 Academic, and 12 Academic. She is not new to Fair Lawn High School due to the fact that she started her student teaching here as well. Ms. Springstead did her undergraduate at Rutgers with communication, and then went on to work for a little bit  She then finished her masters at Montclair University. 

Ms. Springstead originally discovered her passion for teaching when she first started an office job, and realized how much that was not for her since she hated being stuck in an office. When she was a little girl, she would play “school” with her friends, thus at an early age she subconsciously knew that teaching was to be in her future. 

While interviewing Ms. Springstead, I discovered some interesting fun facts about her aside from teaching. One of Ms. Springstead’s hidden talents is baking, and during the summer she loves to travel when she gets the chance. She travels up to Maine every summer to visit her grandparents, while keeping up with her reading. If she were to win the lottery and give up teaching, she would stick to her expertise in English and would work on becoming an author. 

A funny story Ms. Springstead disclosed was an embarrassing teaching moment she had. She was teaching ed TPA, and had to record a video of herself teaching, and when she had one of the cameras set up a student“kept turning around and waving and kept yelling ‘I love English!’” As shown, she clearly had an engaging experience becoming a teacher. 

According to Ms. Sprinstead, the best thing about being a teacher would be that she loves being with students and hearing what they all have to say in discussions about books and how they are relevant to our lives. The worst thing about teaching she would say is “dealing with the discipline stuff.” If she were to pass any type of wisdom down to her students, it would be, “Don’t ever pull an all nighter, it’s not worth it.” 

Aside from teaching, Ms. Springstead discussed some other captivating information about herself. One thing being her astrology sign, which is Cancer. In addition, she stated that when she first got her license, she was all nervous that she would make the wrong turn and end up somewhere strange, which is pretty relatable. 

Ms. Springstead is not only here to provide students with a phenomenal English education, she wants to help influence and guide us toward the right individual path. Ms. Springstead is a great role model to those who want to go into teaching, and even those who don’t. I truly believe that the combination of asking questions about her student’s, checking up on them, and showing interest, is really what makes Ms. Springstead an effective and unique teacher at Fair Lawn High School.