Listen

Watch

Can you tell us about yourself? 

“My name is Audrey Dickson. I teach 6^th grade at Southern Nash Middle in Spring Hope, NC. I have been there for 3 years, but I have been teaching in total for 7.”

Why did you start a career in education?

“I started teaching mainly because I wanted to make the same impact on students lives as teachers made on mine. School was very positive for me and I had a lot fun learning. I want to do the same for the students that I have now.”

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

“If I could have any job in the world, I would just want to stay at home with my kids. I know that’s not a “paying job” but I really just want to be able to stay at home with my kids, but I can’t imagine not teaching.”

How are kids and teaching different now than 30 years ago?

“Teaching and kids today are different in the fact that they have so much access to technology and social media and that spills over into the classroom in both positive and negative ways.”

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

“If I could tell someone who is thinking about being a teacher and if I could give them so advice, I would say do it because you are going to hear negativity all over the place about you work too much, you stay too late, you don’t give paid enough, this and that. But they are not there for the moments when the kid who never talks finally raises their hand and answers a question. Or a student who has been struggling with this math problem or this math skill and finally gets it and can move onto the next thing. Or the student who come here and aren’t speaking a lot of English, they finally raising their hand and answering questions. They are missing those light bulb moments. Its worth it. Yes, there are some challenges, but the positives outweigh the negative by a long shot.”

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

“If I could change one thing to help students learn better, I would change the disconnect sometimes between home and school as far as technology. Our school is 1:1, so every student gets a laptop but not every student has internet at home.”