This time, we decided to do an interview with the English teacher! Her name is Ms. Bond, and she certainly had many stories to share so stick around and enjoy! Some responses were edited for clarity and concision.
Maleah: What do you teach?
Ms. Bond: I teach eighth grade English and a seventh grade Zinc study hall.
Maleah: When did you start teaching?
Ms. Bond: October of last year (2020). BASIS was my first teaching job.
Maleah: Do you enjoy teaching at BASIS?
Ms. Bond: I like teaching at BASIS; I love my students very much. It’s entertaining to teach a bunch of nerds because I’m a nerd myself. I also enjoy the environment on campus.
Maleah: Why did you decide to teach and why at BASIS?
Ms. Bond: I went to a charter school as a kid myself. so that made me grow to have an appreciation for the charter system. I knew some people that went to BASIS, and I was interested in seeing how BASIS does things differently – that was one of the big draws for me.
Maleah: What would you be doing if you weren’t a teacher?
Ms. Bond: I would be a data analyst which is the way that we collect data and the way that we can use data to predict things but also to give us a unique perspective of the world around us.
Maleah: Where did you go to college?
Ms. Bond: I went to college in Missouri. It’s a small arts college called Cottey College. Our max number of students was about 350. It was a really small college, but it was really cool.
Maleah: What did you study while you were in college?
Ms. Bond: I majored in English with a concentration in women’s writers, and then I double majored in women’s gender and sexuality studies.
Maleah: What did your college experience teach you?
Ms. Bond: My college experience taught me more than probably anyone could imagine. My college experience gave me social skills. Prior to attending college, I was a very quiet student, I didn’t answer a lot of questions in class, nor did I raise my hand in class. I wasn’t very chatty with other students and was typically afraid of people in general and when I went to college, I was forced into a situation where I could not get away with not participating. It was such a small school that you were in classes of sometimes 3 to 20 students which caused me to take responsibility for my own education. Speaking up for myself was also a big thing. Not only did I get those actual educational values from college, but I also just got the social skills from college, and it really improved my ability to talk to people and to assert myself in front of a crowd and to do things like this – have an interview with you. I really developed those skills more so in college where I feel like a lot of people develop them more so in high school. College taught me a lot just beyond the classroom.
Maleah: What do you like to do in your free time aside from teaching? Hobbies? Why do you enjoy these hobbies?
Ms. Bond: I’m sort of a jack of all trades and master of none, so I do a little bit of everything. Primarily, I like to consume media of some sort, so if it’s not reading a book, it’s watching a TV show or watching a movie or listening to a podcast. I’m really into media analysis just on the side. But, I’m pretty crafty as well, so I will do needlepoint, make some stickers and paintings. It really just depends; I’m just kind of all over the place when it comes to hobbies.
Maleah: Do you have any pets?
Ms. Bond: I do! I have one dog; her name is Scout after To Kill a Mockingbird. She’s my pride and joy, actually just turned seven this month and I love her very much.
Maleah: What is your favorite food?
Ms. Bond: Potatoes, they’re just a very versatile food.
Maleah: Did you grow up in Arizona or another state? Where in that state?
Ms. Bond: I was born and raised here. I actually still live in the same house; I live with my parents currently so that’s, uh, my entire life in one house.
Maleah: Do you have any siblings? Older or younger?
Ms. Bond: I do; I have two older brothers and one younger sister.
Maleah: When you were a kid did you think you were going to be a teacher, or did you think you were going to be something else?
Ms. Bond: I did; I thought I was going to be a teacher. There was a moment of time where I thought I was going to be something else, but even when I was really young, I would bring home, which I was not allowed to do this, but I would bring home my textbooks, and I would ask for extra copies of like homework packets, so I could like assign it to my little sister and like put on school when I would get home. So, I would give her real homework and real reading assignments. She hated it though of course, but I definitely wanted to be a teacher when I was a little kid.
Maleah: This is going to be a hard question, but what’s your favorite book?
Ms. Bond: Oh no, I was looking forward to not having to answer this question! It really depends. I have favorite books for probably many different genres. So, if I think about the book that started it all for me, cause I wasn’t always an active reader, but really what started it all for me was Percy Jackson. So I have sort of this deep seated love for Percy Jackson which is great because most of my students seem to love them as well. But, for a standalone book, I tend to be slightly obsessed with Pride and Prejudice. I own multiple copies of that book; I’ve read it multiple times; I’ve watched all the films, multiple adaptations. I have revisions of it as well. So, I am a fan, but I’m just a little bit if not a bit obsessed with Pride and Prejudice.
Maleah: What made you choose to teach eighth grade specifically?
Ms. Bond: If I’m being completely honest, I don’t think that there was really a lot of thought put into teaching eighth grade, but it’s honestly the perfect year for me to teach. This is a little off topic but on topic at the same time, my love of English as a subject and of literature and writing really comes from my seventh and eighth grade experiences as a student myself. I had a really great literature teacher, and he just really encouraged me to explore writing but explore literature as well. For me, that was the final chance, like if he hadn’t supported my love at that point it wouldn’t have continued, and it wouldn’t have bloomed more in high school. So for me, eighth grade is kind of this perfect year for me to be kind of be the last chance for kids to get into reading and to really get into analysis before moving on to high school where things are more focused on the AP tests. Eighth grade is kind of the perfect year for me to show how awesome literature and writing can really be.
Maleah: Why do you like English?
Ms. Bond: Oh I love English for so many reasons! But the biggest reason is understanding people. So for me, literature, especially, is really about seeing other perspectives from all over the world and getting to see what it may be like in someone else’s shoes, and I think there’s a certain power in literature in the sense that it can transport us to different worlds and different time periods where you can really just experience a myriad of emotions, settings, and stories. So for me, it’s really about basically getting to know other people that I would never have the opportunity to and coming to understand perspectives and histories that I don’t really have that background in. It’s always for me to just learn new stuff and understand new people, and that’s really the biggest draw for me in English.
Maleah: What is your favorite topic to teach in English?
Ms. Bond: This just comes from what my degree, specifically my English degree, is in, but womens’ place within literature is a really good topic for me just because I think it’s fascinating to see the way in which women have been treated over time and the way that they’ve been treated within literature and how, not only how they’re treated as characters, but also how they’re treated as authors. It’s really interesting to me, and it’s fascinating to see the way that literature has changed so drastically over the centuries and the way that it’s still changing today is really what interests me in the women’s place. Being a woman and loving literature so much, it only makes sense that that’s one of the biggest things for me.
