Watch The Sidekick Business Manager Sukirtha Muthiah’s video as she takes a peek at the life of Coppell High School’s U.S. History teacher Mallory Sather. Inspired by Vogue‘s 73 Questions video series. Watch The Sidekick follow around various teachers/administrators in Coppell ISD by asking them 13 questions in one video take. Watch to learn more.
Why do you teach history?
I teach U.S. history not only because I am super interested in it, of course what teacher isn’t interested in their subject, but I feel like this subject, particularly, and this part of history as well, lets me teach people how to be better human beings, learn some empathy and grow.
What made you want to teach at Coppell High School?
Ironically enough, I joined Coppell because of a professor I had in college that used to work in Coppell. When I was still taking education classes in college he recommended it as a district to work in, so I requested Coppell to student teach. I’m not from DFW originally, I’m from Amarillo, Texas way back west. I was just looking for a recommendation, and I did some research.I thought it sounded like an awesome place to be, and I was right.
How long have you been teaching?
This is my first year teaching. I student taught AP U.S. History and on-level U.S. History last year, here at Coppell.
What is your favorite memory of teaching?
As weird as it was, it was maybe the day last year when my students took the STAAR test. Since the test was over my subject, I wasn’t allowed to be in the classroom administering the test. But I got to see all my students pass through back and forth and seeing the look on their faces when I gave them a fist bump or a high five made me feel like I had done something right. Next to that would probably be an email I got at the end of the year last year from a student, just appreciating me and thanking me for everything that I had done.
When was the moment that you realized you wanted to teach?
My student could tell you this too, I grew up dancing and I taught dance all throughout college. Whenever I first started teaching dance I was actually in high school myself, and I loved teaching and working with kids from that very moment on. But especially with my older classes that were middle school and high school aged, those were my favorite classes to teach so that’s made me want to teach high school specifically. As for teaching history, I actually wanted to teach dance at first and then I dealt with a pretty severe injury my freshman year of college and I had to switch majors, but it was the best decision I ever made and now I could not imagine teaching anything else.
What does your life outside of teaching usually look like?
I like to be a social butterfly and I am pretty extroverted. I don’t do well with a lot of downtime, which is a good thing for a teacher, I guess. I love to spend time with my friends and family. My sister actually lives in The Colony with her husband, so I spend a lot of time with them. I like to travel as well, and traveling is what got me interested in history.
What was your most embarrassing moment?
I took Precalculus my junior year of high school. I went to a very small school so my teacher had my older sister three years before. I am not very good at math, obviously, I teach history. I remember after the first test we had in her class, she gave me back my test and the grade was not really what I had hoped, and in front of the entire class she said, “your older sister was better at math than you.” That was probably my most embarrassing moment, that might top the list.
What is your favorite part of your classroom?
There’s kind of two things. I do have a movie poster timeline, so it is a timeline of U.S. history pretty much from colonization in the early 1500s all the way to 2008 where my timeline ends. That was inherited from the teacher that taught before me in this room. My pride and joy, that I put up this summer, is my newspaper wall. It goes in chronological order, and all of them are authentic newspapers. Every newspaper means something significant to me, so that’s why it is my favorite.
If you could have a profession other than being a teacher, what would it be?
I would want to be a performer on a cruise ship. That was one of my career goals before my big knee injury happened because it would be combining what I love doing, dance, with something else I love doing, traveling. But I honestly don’t know if I would prefer that, I think my number one choice would always be teaching, over and over again.
What is something that you have learned from your students?
Where do I even begin, because I learn something new every day. I think my students have taught me to be a lot more curious. Sometimes it’s easy to get stuck in the rut of knowing what you know and feeling like you have to teach that and address it all the time, but my students have taught me to continue to look into what I am teaching and to never stop being curious about different angles to pursue something by. That’s my biggest lesson that I value from them.
If you had to choose one food to be for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I would choose coffee. I don’t remember when I started drinking coffee, like I was that young, so I would consider myself pretty caffeine dependent. But if I had to choose an actual food, I would say peanut butter. I’m clearly very healthy.
What is one piece of advice you have for your students or anyone seeing this?
Embrace the stress. That sounds a little weird, but I’ve had to do it this year as well and I think it’s been a life mantra of mine since high school got stressful for me during sophomore year. All that I mean by that is, yeah you’re going to have some hard days, who doesn’t. And there are so many transitions that happen in this period of life from about when you’re 16 to your late twenties. It’s not always going to be fun, but embrace because it is a beautiful journey, as cheesy as that sounds.
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