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Can you tell us about yourself? 

"Hi, my name is Angie Quinn and I am a third grade teacher at Greenbrier Elementary School in Greenville, South Carolina. I've been at Greenbrier for the last nine years. I actually started here as a special education aide and then I moved into my role as a teacher, um, for first, second and third grade. So I was a first grade teacher for a couple of years, a second grade teacher for about four years. And then this is my second year in third grade." 

Why did you start a career in education?

"Um, I started my career in education because I wanted to make a difference in the lives of children. Um, I had a lot of wonderful teachers growing up and so I wanted to be able to do the same thing for our future and the students that are in my classroom every single day." 

If you could have any other job what would it be and why?

"If I could have any other job, um, I would probably do something that would, um, help children in the medical field. Um, I've thought about like a child life specialist, um, just because I feel like I could use my teaching abilities, um, with children who are facing, um, medical procedures in crisises. Um, and so that just has always kinda been intriguing to me." 

How are kids different now than 30 years ago?

"Um, I am actually 31 years old. Um, and so I'm thinking about how children were 30 years ago. Well that would be me. And so, um, I feel like kids are a lot different now because they have so many, um, devices in front of them all the time. Um, I actually have a two year old myself. And so to think about the world when I was two versus the world when she is now to, um, it's just a very different world with, um, a lot of technology and needing to know how to utilize that technology in a productive manner as a child of 30 years ago." 

How is teaching different now than 30 years ago?

"Um, thinking about how teaching is different, um, I just think, you know, there weren't devices in my classroom when I was in third grade. And, um, a lot of the activities that I did were just drill in practice, um, when I was a kid. And so I know in my classroom now, like my students have their hands on things and my students are actively engaged in building their own learning. And so I think that's probably the biggest difference between what I've used my education has as a child where my teachers gave me information and then I spit that information back out on the test. Um, now I feel like we're really asking students to utilize that. Um, in order to complete more complex tasks." 

What would you tell someone who wants to become a teacher?

"If someone was thinking about becoming a teacher, I would tell them to do it because I know the difference that it has made in me personally. Um, just being able to work with children who have different needs and different struggles and different strengths every single day has just been such a blessing. And yeah, the money's not fabulous. You won't get great big, huge paychecks. Um, but it is worth it to come in here every day. If you have a passion for children and you know, just make sure that you're providing for them the very best education that you can possibly give them and an education beyond just, um, textbook material. But even life skills and the important things that they're going to need to be successful individuals." 

What is one thing you would change to help kids learn better?

"And one thing that I would change to help kids learn better is giving them equal access to materials, which I think is why I'm, I'm making this video because I want all of my students to be able to have earbuds in order to participate in our activities that they work on, on their one-to-one devices. Um, really the, the district has done a great job of providing us with the actual Chromebooks that they use daily, but the actual ability to give everyone headsets to listen to different, um, activities just hasn't been given to us. And so I really just would love to provide the same access, um, to all materials for all students, whether that be field trips or earbuds or, um, just life experiences that I feel like are sometimes lacking, um, based on socioeconomic status of our students. Um, so thank you so much for this opportunity to get some, um, free earbuds and, um, I know my students will appreciate it and so do I. So thank you so much."