Last semester, Lincoln had three staff members on maternity leave. One of those members was English teacher Mrs. Creech who was teaching at Lincoln for the first time.  She went on maternity leave in late May prior to the end of the school year.

Mrs. Creech gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Emma Grace Creech, on June 11th 2019. 

I spoke with Mrs. Creech and asked her how she felt about being a mother. “… it’s really fun and magical… I think it can be challenging because… it changes your relationship with your partner because now you have to negotiate for another human being. You have to be less selfish… But it’s also amazing to see a human being grow and change… want something and work really work hard to get it… right now my daughter really wants to crawl, she can’t figure it out yet, but she really wants to crawl… it’s really cool to see her see an object and try to figure out how to get it and make progress towards that every day.”

I also asked her what teaching strategies she has implemented into being a mom. Mrs. Creech connected teaching and parenting by saying, “I think the most important part of teaching and parenting is being present. That’s really hard as both a teacher and a parent. It’s hard as a teacher because you have all these ideas you’re trying to get out, you have a whole classroom full of students. You’re trying to understand where they’re coming from, you also know where you want to go in the lesson. So it’s really hard to be present at the moment with them and really figure out where they’re at, in terms of understanding the material… and it’s the same thing with being a parent. You’re with your kid but… I’m thinking about my lesson for tomorrow and getting dinner on the table; and, how are we gonna make it to bed time? Are her pajamas clean? Did we clean up the vomit from the sheets?… I’m not always successful, but when I am, I feel like a good mom or a good teacher when I can be truly present in that moment with my class or with my daughter.”

Amidst the recent implementations of the “Trap Room,” I asked her what her initial thoughts were about it, knowing she has been at school for two weeks. She stated,  “… I would say there’s a huge difference in terms of [students] being on time, being ready for class.” She called it “… comparing apples to oranges…” because she didn’t know much about her students tendencies on attendance and whether or not Trap has affected those tendencies. Mrs. Creech also looked at it from a student’s perspective when she said, “… getting to school… getting to class on time is hard, especially when you’re over in the portable… Everybody wakes up late in the morning… and having that extra stress of having a consequence is hard.” She concluded the interview by stating, “I am a fan of Trap.”