Summerdale Middle School named Jenni Rachel its 2010 “Teacher of the Year.”

She has been teaching for more than 20 years and she is in her second year of teaching middle school math at Summerdale. Rachel has taught in schools in Pensacola and other schools in Baldwin County including Foley High School.

She graduated from the University of South Alabama with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education with an emphasis in math, and then earned her master’s degree in media education from the University of South Alabama.

The Elberta resident said she has always known she wanted to be a teacher.

“I really have always known,” she said. “I think I really knew in the ninth grade when I had a teacher that was just excellent and broke everything down and made things simple. When I went to college I automatically went into education.”

The Onlooker spoke with Rachel about her teaching experiences and strategies.

Q: How did you get started teaching?

A: I have been teaching since I got out of college. I have been teaching in the county for a long time and I taught at Pensacola Catholic High for three years.

Q: Why do you teach middle school?

A: Most of my time has been in middle school but I taught at Pensacola Catholic High and Foley High, so I have some high school experience as well, but I was pretty much born to be a middle school teacher. I have a lot of fun teaching middle school and I just love the kids. It is just fun for me. I like the age of the kids. They want to learn. They are just very eager to learn and I love middle school kids.

Q: You have your master’s in media education, but why are you still teaching?

A: In 2000, I went back and got my master’s in media education but I love teaching math so I am just going to continue teaching math. I am not going to move to the library.

I teach seventh and eighth. I teach algebra and eighth-grade math, and eighth-grade pre-algebra.

Q: Why do you teach?

A: I teach to show students who think they can’t do it that they can and to make them just love learning. I really try hard to make it fun.

Q: What is your favorite subject to learn?

A: Right now I like to learn about technology. It is just fascinating to me. It has been a lot of fun. I have learned this year how to use a document camera. I have a document camera that I use. I use the SMART Board, I use an airliner to write on.  It is so much fun. We can play games with PowerPoints and it makes it so much more fun.

Q: What teaching methods and techniques do you use that are unique to you?

A: I make up a lot of stuff. I make up a lot of poems and a whole bunch of different ways to teach things. When I teach equations, I teach something with an electric fence and boxing in the side with the variable. Any kind of thing to help them remember. I have a tic tac toe chart that I use when I teach how to divide integers.

Q: What is your favorite part about teaching?

A: My favorite part about teaching, I know that I make a difference in these kids’ lives. I have just been so blessed to have kids come back to me and tell me. I still have students in my life that I taught many years ago and I know I make a difference. I have just been real lucky to have been told that. A lot of times teachers aren’t.

Q: What is your least favorite part about teaching?

A: Paperwork.

Q: What impact do you hope to have on your students?

A: I just hope that they can see my love of learning and take that with them.

Q: What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a teacher?

A: I think it is students being on so many different levels or not coming to me prepared. So, it is hard for me to teach the standards that I need to teach when they are not really prepared. When they don’t walk through my door knowing how to do things that they need to. Then, once they are in here it makes it difficult when they are all on different levels.

Q: What do you think makes you a good teacher?

A: Because I care and love the kids and they know it. So, in turn, they respect me. I respect them and they respect me.

Q: How much time do you spend working outside the classroom?

A: A lot. Probably every night, I stay usually until about 4:30 or 5, and then I pull all of my stuff in and do schoolwork probably two hours everyday and then I do all of my grading on Saturdays. Sundays, I play the piano and I serve three churches on Sundays. I usually try not to do schoolwork on Sundays. I try to keep it all to the weekdays and Saturday.

Q: What is it like to have Christmas, spring and summer break?

A: I think it is very healthy to rejuvenate, to give us time to do that. It gives me time to reflect and think about what I can do better, how I can do my teaching job better. Last summer I spent the whole summer redoing all of my computer files so I could find my material. It is just amazing the sources that I have now because of technology, but being able to put your hands on it, has been very helpful this year.

Q: How do you make sure your students get the best education they can?

A: I pretty much work from the time I get here to the time I leave, working on identifying what it is they don’t know and reteach, reteach, reteach. Go back and review because I know what they need to know.

Q: Is it difficult to have middle school students in an elementary school setting?

A: It is. Our new principal, Mr. Mummah is wonderful in helping us try to help the kids feel like it is a middle school. It helps with us being in a different building.

Q: Why do you love teaching at Summerdale compared to other schools?

A: I have been at a lot of schools in the county, I love, love, love Summerdale. It is very unique. It is a wonderful place. The team I work with they are super. We love these kids and we nurture them and we take care of them and then on the flipside we are trying to get them ready for high school as well.