Within the last three years, Spanish teacher Ms. Christy Keating has taught in three different Parkway schools, teaching four different variations of Spanish in two different levels of schools.
“I worked at Parkway South High School in 2010, and last year I worked at Parkway Northeast Middle,” Keating said
At Parkway South, Keating was a substitute for a traveling teacher. Due to budget cuts during her time at Parkway Northeast Middle, the school decided to have only one Spanish teacher. Despite the constant changes, Keating feels very fortunate to have a job.
“It was a lot of moves, but it worked out really well,” Keating said. “I feel very grateful to be in Parkway; they did a lot of rearranging to keep jobs and I am very grateful for that.”
Moving between high schools and middle schools within a three-year period proved difficult for Keating.
“It was a challenge to go from high school to middle school and back to high school again because the students learn so differently and are at such different stages of development,” Keating said.
Though adapting to new schools proved to be difficult, that was not the most challenging aspect of the change.
“I’ve had to completely rewrite lesson plans, create new ways of presenting material and rely on help from my colleagues every year to accommodate the age I am teaching,” Keating said.
Despite the challenges, Keating was able to adapt to the changes from Northeast Middle to Central.
“I teach a lot of freshman, so the move was not that different from the eighth graders I used to teach at Parkway Northeast Middle,” Keating said.
What did change was the increase in classes she has to teach, going from two to three, to teaching five classes.
“I really like teaching at high school because I have lots of colleagues to share ideas with,” Keating said.
“It’s good to work with other people that are working in the same field as yourself, it makes having more classes a lot easier to manage.”
Not only does she have colleagues to work with, but she has students that are also grateful for her being here. “I love my Spanish class, she [Ms. Keating] is a very good teacher and out of all my Spanish teachers, I have by far learned the most in her class,” sophomore Whitney Vespa said.
One of the techniques Keating uses to teach is having her Spanish 2 students write to pen pals in Argentina. She had them make videos of themselves around St. Louis describing their favorite restaurants and places to hangout.
“We went around to places like Bread Co. and explained what they were like. We put the videos up on a website for the kids in Argentina to see and we can’t wait for their responses,” sophomore Cati Sloman said.
Keating just wants to be the best teacher possible.
“I really want to…provide these students with a great education that they can carry with them in the future,” Keating said.
After many moves Keating is now settling down.
“There are good things about each school where I’ve taught, but this is the first year I feel ‘settled’ in my teaching career,” Keating said. “This is due in part to the fantastic students in my classes, and also to my colleagues who have been such a great help to me.”
