When English 2 starts off each day, Mrs. Crickenberger and her students read for 15 minutes. Her students can tell their teacher is excited for them to learn and always wants them to feel safe in the classroom environment.
This is Mrs. Crickenberger’s 6th year as a teacher. She taught four years at a school in Atlanta, one year at Farragut High School, and one year here at Central High School. She came to Central because she knew a bunch of teachers already! “In some ways Farragut was really good, but one it was really far away from my house, and two I wasn’t used to it.” While saying this Mrs.Crickenberger says, “the school in Atlanta was very similar to Central, which made me feel more at home.” Mrs. Crickenberger likes the environment of Central and she really learned how to become more of a teacher here!
Teachers make lots of friends that they can be around and talk to. “I’m so happy Mrs. Crickenberger has come to Central this year! She is a great addition to our department, and I’m glad that she is enjoying her first year here!” says theater teacher, Ms. Hicks.
She loves to read and coach her volleyball team. One of her favorite movies is Harry Potter. She even named her two poodles after the characters Mini and Lupin, they are very energetic, but really sweet.
Mrs. Crickenberger Reading a Book 🙂
Being in a new school as a teacher can be really hard. They may not know what their students think of them. “I like her teaching style a lot. Though the big assignments are annoying, they have good pacing to them,” says sophomore, Atlas T.
Mrs. Crickenberger believes “the discussions we do in our class” are the most valuable. For example, she says “like talking about real issues and reading The House On Mango Street, talking about how we think about those issues and how we experience those issues, and how the book may have changed our opinions or reinforced some opinions like those days seem like the most important days to me even though we don’t really get graded on them.” This shows that Mrs. Crickenberger is interested in her students and their work.
As a kid, Mrs. Crickenberger went to school in Georgia. Where her 11th grade teacher inspired her to become a teacher. She got her associates degree in Georgia University. Then she went to Georgia State University to earn a degree in Education.
Mrs. Crickenberger Teaching Class
Remembering her 11th grade teacher, Mrs. Crickenberger says, “She was the first person who made me feel like I was smart. I always got good grades and I had worked hard but I didn’t think I was intelligent.” This is when Mrs. Crickenberger realized the teacher had a lot of belief in her. “I felt like she cared more about my life than just the subject matter. It wasn’t just like me showing up and getting the grade, it had a lot to do with the relationship.” This is when Mrs. Crickenberger saw that being a teacher wasn’t just grading papers and teaching, it was about making connections with their students.
“The importance of English is to teach students their importance in life along with their personality. It’s also the main thing we do outside of school – communication” says Mrs. Crickenberger.
At a young age, Crickenberger wanted to be an actress, but teaching seemed more interesting than acting. A inspiring quote that motivates her is, “And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good” by John Steinbeck.
When asked to explain the reason the quote motivates her, Mrs. Crickenberger says, “I can get the idea of perfect and good confused and I think I have to do things perfectly or put a lot of stress on myself and stress on others. The quote means that now you let go of that stress you can now focus on being good and doing good for the world and doing good for other people.”
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