Within the chemistry teachers of Coppell High School, a new face appeared last year, Chemistry teacher Rebecca Rosamond-Grammer.  Grammer is 26 and graduated with a degree in chemistry from Texas A&M in 2020, She is in her second year teaching, facing challenges with determination.

Has your age affected how senior teachers or students have treated you?

Interacting with other teachers has created some interesting dynamics, but they’ve always been very respectful and ask me for my ideas and have a way for me to contribute to the team. [It’s] been pretty great overall. Interacting with my students, it has pretty much been OK. There’s always that problem with students wanting to be your friend when you’re a younger teacher. That’s a barrier I’ve had to work on [and put in place].

Have you always wanted to teach?

That was not always what I wanted to do. When I was growing up, I always thought I would be a chemical engineer. I was going to school for engineering at first and I ended up [transferring to] the chemistry program. I had a bunch of friends who were taking an introduction ( to teaching class, and I was like “Oh, I need another elective, I’ll go take that one” and I absolutely fell in love with it. I had so much fun working with kids and it was like everything clicked into place and I knew that’s what I wanted to do. It’s been only a couple of years now that I really wanted to [teach] but it’s definitely where I should be.

What do you hope to achieve in your career?

I definitely enjoy being in the classroom. I think that that is my end goal in my career, to stay in the classroom. I don’t want to move into administration or something like that but I would love to get certified in GT or AP and move to working with those students. I think that would be really exciting because I was always a GT student when I was in school. I’d love to work with those kids.

What is the most fulfilling part of your day in the classroom?

Getting to talk with my students [in] those moments between class [and] at the end of class when we’ve finished working. Getting to chat with people and getting to know my students is the most rewarding part; I love that.

What are some challenges you’ve faced as a teacher?

My first year of teaching was really hard. For most people, that first year of teaching is really difficult. My biggest struggle has been with classroom management and making sure that I’m able to meet the needs of all the students and keeping a calm, respectful classroom.  Another challenge I’ve had to overcome is my time management. There’s only so many hours in the day and I have to work on making sure that I’m using my time efficiently. Especially in my first year, I would end up staying way too late working on things, trying to get things perfect. I’ve had to work on balancing that and getting a good balance between my work and my life.

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