Faculty Focus is a student life series, featuring a faculty member at Coppell High School, rotating by department, each week.
For as long as she has been teaching at Coppell High School, Algebra II teacher Hanna Treece has been spreading positivity to students and staff. Treece shares how her charismatic and transparent personality guides her and her students to success and why she is driven by kindness.
What inspired you to become an educator?
I don’t think it was much of an inspiration as more than just an intuition. I feel like this question always comes up and there was no signifying moment in my life that I was like, ‘I’m going to be a teacher.’ It’s something that I literally think I was born to do. So, I’m very blessed to know that because I know a lot of kids struggle with not knowing what they want to do when they grow up and I’m the exact opposite. I never thought, ‘Should I do this or this?’ so it was always like, ‘oh, I’m going to be a teacher.’
How would you describe your approach to working with students?
When people meet me and find out I’m a teacher, they always assume I’m an elementary school teacher. I think the aura of my personality is very extra and over the top. I like to dress up; I like to have fun. Then again, I always knew I wanted to teach high schoolers because I love this age group. I think it’s very pivotal. I think it’s important that I tell my kids, and I faithfully live by this. I am open, real and honest with my students because I want them to do the same for me; I think that transparency resonates with people.
How do you spread positivity to others?
There is some unconscious bias in my upbringing, as I was raised by a single mom. I didn’t have a relationship with my dad, but my mom was very supportive of anything and everything we did, and she was really good at just instilling the golden rule into us: kill ‘em with kindness. She reminded us to always have the best behavior, manners and politeness. That’s just how I was raised, so I feel like it’s genuinely inside of me to be a nice person. Being nice to somebody doesn’t cost a single thing, especially with all of the negativity that happens in this world.
How does that tie in with your teaching style?
I don’t think I’m any better than anyone else down this hallway or in this school. There are so many teachers on this campus who are so innovative and experts in their content. I don’t think I am like a math wizard, even though I do love math. In regards to that, I feel like I’m not that great of a teacher, but I think I have a good connection with my kids. My students and I just have good conversations and it just so happens to be about math in my class.
How has your teaching style evolved?
It evolved simply by being in Texas and being at this campus specifically. At my old school, it was fantastic and I loved it, but it was very streamlined. It was like, we didn’t have technology; everybody had to do the same thing on the same day. It was very mandated. I came here and it’s completely one the teacher and the team, which is fantastic. It gives us that creative freedom and autonomy. Having an administrative staff that allows us to be creative and innovative and not just stick to our lesson plan that we have to submit every week, allows me to evolve.
What’s a memorable moment from your time at CHS?
What’s memorable to me are events like Teacher Appreciation Nights when you guys are on these extracurriculars in these organizations and you choose someone that’s making a small difference in your day-to-day and you honor them at your volleyball game. That makes my heart very happy. Supporting my students all outside of the classroom, like going to the theater performances, going to cheer bingo or things like that, is what I’m going to remember about my career.
What do you love most about working at CHS? What are your goals for this school year?
I’m still kind of learning how to be a liaison between the leadership team and my department. A personal goal of mine is growing in that leadership role and learning how I can be a better mentor to some people in the department. Another one of my goals is that I want to improve our social interaction between us teachers and not just within the department. I feel like we’re very segregated, so I never get to see other teachers unless it’s one of our teacher work days, which is maybe three or four times a year.
What advice would you give to new staff members at CHS?
Appreciate the vastness of this school. This school is huge and it can be very overwhelming but turn that into a positive and look at how many different things are going on. It’s sad to be so isolated in a school with just one type of kid or one type of teacher, because I came from a school where it was pretty much 50% White and 50% Black. We had a majority of White female teachers and a couple White males and a couple of Black. You can get stuck in a rut and not learn; you don’t grow from that, not appreciating what other people can do and bring to the table. So coming to CHS, yes it is overwhelming, but it’s amazing that we can have organizations and clubs and sports that every single kid is interested in. There are also teachers here that are from all walks of life all around the world.
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