Madison Runk

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve been given about teaching? 

A: Not to sweat the small stuff, but to just worry about your relationships with the students. 

Q: What made you choose to teach at AAHS? 

A: I really love special education, so that’s what my position is. I’m doing learning support, and I really love learning support, kind of being that helping hand in the classroom. I’ve never really worked with high school students, so I thought it would be fun to see like the difference between elementary level and secondary students and see if I actually really liked it and that turns out I do.

Q: When was the moment you realized you wanted to be a teacher?

A: During my senior year of high school when I was doing community service at an elementary school, I got to help out the teachers a lot and they let me teach little mini lessons, reading books and stuff to the kids and different things and that made me really realize that I wanted to do that.

Q: What is your favorite part of teaching so far? Why?

A: My favorite part is getting to know students because high school kids just aren’t really open but are able to actually have good conversations and engage in that kind of stuff. And it’s really rewarding when a student actually wants to open up to you because it feels more important because high schoolers are more educated and know when to trust somebody and when to open up to somebody, so when they do, it’s rewarding.

Q: Who inspired you to become a teacher?

A: My high school Spanish teacher, Senor Pole; he’s no longer here, but he was awesome. He loved his students, and he did everything to make his class fun.

Q: What college did you go to?

A: I went to Saint Francis University.

Q: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

A: I like crocheting and painting and all the artsy-fartsy kind of things.

Q: Why did you choose the subject that you are teaching? 

A: I didn’t really get to choose, but math is really fun. And getting to teach algebra was nice because algebra was one of my favorite math subjects.

Q: As a student, I know I tend to get nervous for the first weeks of school. As a teacher in a new school, do you feel that sense of nervousness you once felt as a student? 

A: Absolutely. I’m still nervous about the things that we haven’t done yet. I don’t know how this is supposed to work. It’s definitely very nerve wracking to meet your students and be like, I don’t know what they’re like so what are they going to think of me?

Q: Is there something you would want to do during your teaching career? Ex: coaching a sport, head of a club etc.

A: I would love to help out with a club or help students start a new club if they see the need for it. That and just kind of being like the helping hand. I love volunteering and helping for other things outside of the teaching responsibilities. Homecoming would be something fun to do. That kind of stuff, stuff that benefits the students