Madilyn Ober

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

A: It’s okay to reach out for help. And that you don’t have to know it all right from the start. It’s okay to learn as you go. Always learn from your mistakes.

Q: What made you want to teach at AAHS?

A: I’ve always liked Altoona as an area, so I began looking into the school and seeing if they had a position open. I figured I’d just apply and see where it took me, and here I am.

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

A: Probably my junior year of high school. I had a really awesome trig teacher, which kind of sounds crazy to think about, but he’s really what pushed me into education because I wanted to make a difference in my student’s lives like he made in mine. 

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

A: I’d say my favorite part is probably getting to know the students and just having the connections with them because they’re what keeps the day going. I like to not constantly just worry about math.

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

A: I like spending time with my friends and family outdoors: Mostly in the summers. I like to go to the beach. That’s where I tried to go a couple of times.

Q: Why did you choose algebra as the subject you wanted to teach?

A: Math has always been a subject that I guess comes easily to me. It’s the only subject to me that has a definite answer, and everything in it just makes sense. I figured why not teach it.

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

A: Oh, yeah. Especially this year with it not only being my first year, but I’m in a school that’s on the scale that I’ve never been in before. All of my placements for student teaching in college were small schools that were local to my high school. I’m used to a school where the population is 300 compared to a school with a population of 2,200. So yeah, it definitely was nerve-racking.

Q: Is there something that you would want to do during your teaching career like coaching a sport, or leading a club? 

A: I would be interested in coaching at some point or possibly getting involved. In high school, I ran cross country and played softball, so I could see myself, maybe one day, at least volunteering possibly.