I interviewed Miss Montgomery to learn more about her background and experiences as a teacher. Miss Montgomery is Lincoln’s gymnastics coach and an ethnic studies teacher. She was born and grew up right here in Seattle. Montgomery attended UW where she studied business, with the goal of becoming an accountant.
Her plans changed when she held an internship meant for people becoming teachers and fell in love with education. This experience, combined with a study abroad in France, helped steer Montgomery away from her plan of becoming an accountant and led her to decide that she wanted to go down the path of teaching.
She graduated UW with an undergraduate degree in international studies and a masters in teaching. After living in Istanbul, Turkey for the next three years with her boyfriend, Montgomery began student teaching at Roosevelt High School with the same teacher she had when attending Rosevelt in 2007.
Roosevelt was just beginning to implement an Ethnic Studies program and although Montgomery taught a variety of other classes her main one ended up being ethnic studies because she believes, “It is more accurate history, and I think it’s more engaging to learn about also. I also like the freedom of the course with being able to talk about lots of contemporary things”.
This is Miss Montgomery’s fifth year teaching at Lincoln High School. Her favorite parts of teaching are how interesting it is, and how every day is different. She loves meeting the students each year and getting to know them. Montgomery teaches roughly the same classes from year to year, so she finds it interesting to see how student answers vary and the different connections that they can make to what is going on in the world.
In Montgomery’s free time she likes to be outdoors playing on her Co-ed soccer team, skiing, or coaching gymnastics. She also enjoys watching reality TV shows (such as Love is Blind) and has a goal to watch every international season. However Montgomery can’t start any of these activities without a glass of milk first which she always drinks when she arrives home from teaching.
Montgomery cares about her students and is passionate about her work. She really wants her students to have a good time in her class and get a lot out of it: “I hope that students remember my class as a positive experience, that’s the most important thing with school. It’s not about feeling stressed or ashamed or put on the spot but it’s a comfortable place to learn. With history especially, it’s hard to remember certain facts but I hope that my students think back to the broader concepts as they are going through their lives whether that’s higher education, or voting in the future.”