We’ve had many teachers at Pottsgrove High School that have dedicated many years to teaching, however, one teacher who has been here for 25 years, stands out and does more than just teach. Mrs. Scott continues to make a powerful impact in the lives of every one of her students. She is one of the extraordinary and devoted staff members at Pottsgrove High School. From always being an extremely involved high school student herself, and receiving great support from the adults in her life, she now wants to give back and benefit the lives of her students. As an American History and the APUSH teacher this year, Mrs. Scott appreciates honesty, integrity, and embraces her students’ innovation in everyday assignments.
Starting out in her high school career at Daniel Boone, Mrs. Scott learned discipline and found personal commitment in her education. She told me, “I really had to work,” and this energy is noticeably relayed in how she teaches at Pottsgrove. She notes that her motivation and passion behind teaching came from the investment and time the teachers she had in high school put into her. Teaching displayed the perfect combination of history, kids, coaching, and athletics for her.
Belonging to a school that is heavy in community spirit is one of the qualities that Mrs. Scott enjoys most about Pottsgrove, and it is what sealed her decision to teach here. She says many of the students she remembers from when she was in high school are similar to the students at Pottsgrove. She also describes seeing a younger version of herself in the students she teaches, which shows a great deal of her compassion and eagerness to understand others. When I asked Mrs. Scott to explain the current energy students bring to Pottsgrove, she says she sees a lot of good and students who challenge the standards, which she admires. Throughout the years, she also loved being able to teach relatives or siblings that are years apart.
Becoming our school’s Bocce coach and being an advocate for inclusion at Pottsgrove, is a great example of Mrs. Scott’s endless generosity. Starting the Unified Bocce program at Pottsgrove, was a great way to get different groups of students connected, “There’s a population of students that […] tend to need special services [which] sequesters them from the rest of the student body, and I felt like it was an awesome way to bring regular ed into relationships with life skills students and athletes that might normally not know each other or be recognized,” Mrs. Scott says. The team this season had a lot of camaraderie and patience. She accounts for the respect the team had for each other and their commitment to excel in which they did. The team won one more match than they did last year, go Bocce!
In her career at Pottsgrove High School, Mrs. Scott has taught just about every history class she could get her hands on: World History, Civics, American History, APUSH, and almost all other History classes offered. That being said, she sees students from all skill levels and motivation. This can often be the challenging part of the job, some students feel teachers forget about, Mrs. Scott says, “I like the challenge of figuring out how to appeal to all the different learners that I see.” Mrs. Ebert, a good friend and colleague of Mrs. Scott, can confirm, “Mrs. Scott is a passionate and hard-working educator. She has the unique ability to meet students where they are and motivate them to achieve their goals. Her classes are informative and interactive. Students know when they walk into room 109, they need to bring their A game. This love of teaching and students permeates her room and creates a culture of success at Pottsgrove High School.” Mrs. Scott strives to relate with her students and find a way to connect with and support them. “I feel like there’s an obligation to look at the people that are coming along behind you,” she says, remembering her own decisions. Mrs. Scott believes the words of encouragement given by adults, like herself, can greatly impact the way students view their capabilities.
Furthering Mrs. Scott’s considerate nature, as a history teacher, she strives to base lessons off of facts and raw information, which can be a challenging situation. In teaching what many call ‘hard history,’ Mrs. Scott confirms for other educators, “I think that the vast majority of teachers don’t want to indoctrinate students, we want to make you critical thinkers.” Simply sharing the facts of the time with students is the goal.
In her teaching methods, Mrs. Scott hopes to demonstrate her sincerity by displaying the efforts she puts into her work of grading, agendas, and more, in hopes to create an equal relationship with her students. A former student, Corinne Hudock, who has spent many free classes with Mrs. Scott as a service learner is a living beneficiary of Mrs. Scott’s caring nature. Corinne says, “Mrs. Scott has supported me through one of the hardest parts of my high school journey. She has shown me how to not let the bad things get me down and how to focus on the good things that have happened to me. It is fair to say that without Mrs. Scott in my life, I would not be where I am today.”
The message she hopes to relay to her students is that she was never truly interested in those with the best grades, only that students would grow up to be good citizens and that they could feel they had the space to “catch back up with me in life.” In her final remarks, Mrs. Scott shares her faith in the future, she believes the students she teaches and the youth of today have the capacity for positive change.
