COMMODORE MEDIA GROUP

Lafayette High School has many new teachers this year. One in particular, Ms. Rachel Reed, graduated from Lafayette in 2017. She teaches Algebra I and II.

Reed started school here at Lafayette in first grade. Growing up around aunts that were teachers, said she knew that is what she wanted to be for as long as she could remember. “I always knew that I wanted to be able to teach students and have the chance to be a positive influence in their lives.”

One reason Reed wanted to become a teacher was seeing how each of her teachers had an impact on students. She said, “I always admired teachers when they would find the one person in the class that maybe no other students talked to, and the teacher would talk to them and encourage them. That completely changed some of those students, at least for the day. I saw that they were encouraging those students and helping them to believe in themselves, and I wanted to be able to do that.”

She also said she wanted to be able to encourage students to learn. She said Mrs. Cornelius, one of our math teachers here at Lafayette, played a big role in her wanting to become a teacher, because Cornelius always encouraged her students to learn. “Some students really struggle with math, but [Mrs. Cornelius] believed in her students. She wanted them to succeed and she was enthusiastic about a student learning math… She did not want students to simply be able to solve a problem but to be innovative and learn it in a new way. She wanted students to push themselves to be the best that they could be.”

Reed attended Mississippi College, and was initially majoring in English Education and minoring in math. However, during her second semester, she was asked to be a math tutor at her college. She said, “Working in the tutoring center I quickly realized that I really enjoyed helping students understand the different problems so that was the course I took.”

While she said the teachers have been so welcoming, she also said it was strange seeing her teachers from when she was a student. “I am still getting used to that, now being in a different role. I did not have a teacher that I did not like in high school, in fact my favorite teachers were and are still here. It has been fun getting to see them again and having them give me advice as I start teaching.”

Reed said she has loved being a teacher at Lafayette so far. “My favorite part is getting to know the students, learning how each class interacts with each other and with math.” She also said her students have been great, and is looking forward to the rest of the year with them.