By Sakshi Venkatraman

staff writer

@oompapa1

In just two years, Diane de Waal has gone from teaching middle school United States History to teaching two simultaneous high school Advanced Placementclasses.

In the 2013-14 school year, de Waal began teaching AP Human Geography, which, at the time was the only AP course offered to freshmen students.

This year, in addition to teaching two courses of AP HUG, she has also taken on three AP U.S. History classes.

“I really like the energy of the high school a lot,” de Waal said. “There is always something going on here. The students have so much available to them.”

Although she has been teaching for 20 years, de Waal says she was slightly nervous about moving to APUSH this year because of the change in age groups.

“At first I thought, ‘Am I cool enough to teach juniors?’ because I came from middle school. But really, juniors are really eighth graders that are a little bit older. And I know so many people here that it has made the transition easier,” de Waal said.

Another thing that has made her transition easier is the fact that she is teaching a subject that she is knowledgeable of and comfortable with.

“I know U.S. History so well, I’m so comfortable with it, that I stay up too late and get up too early because I am so in love with planning lessons and creating things for the kids to work hard on,” de Waal said.

De Waal also said moving from the middle school level to the Advanced Placement level has been great for her teaching methods and planning.

“I like AP because I like the fact the we are moving towards a goal, which is to do well on the AP exam and get college credit,” de Waal said. “I liked the curriculum we covered in eighth grade because it went at a slow pace so we could focus on topics better; the [pace] has been a challenge for me this year, but I am trying to make sure everybody learns what they need to know.”

CHS junior Sonia Patel not only has de Waal for APUSH this year, but also had her three years ago for eighth grade history.

“Her teaching style has changed a lot. She now gives projects that are less conceptual based and more concrete, with really specific guidelines,” Patel said. “She is also a lot faster paced whenever she teaches, there is never a time in class when we are not working. We have to work as hard as possible or we end up with a lot of homework, as opposed to eighth grade where we got, maybe, one assignment a week.”

Though de Waal’s leaving Coppell Middle School West may have may have affected her teaching style, it evidently did notaffect her passion for the job.

“She still dresses up in costumes for lectures,” Patel said. “She just really, really loves history. She definitely still has the same amount of passion that she always did. I actually think she has gotten more passionate since the eighth grade.

“I remember in eighth grade she always used to talk about how it was her dream to teach APUSH, and now that she is teaching it, she is certainly doing the best she can to make sure we learn a lot.”

Not only does Ms. de Waal bring a lot to her classroom, she also brings a lot to the table for the Social Studies Department as a whole.

“[De Waal] is known for being a relationship driven educator who is all about having fun in the process of learning,” department head John Harris said. “Ms. De Waal has taught history at CMS West where she distinguished herself as an excellent and innovative educator.  While in that position she was awarded Teacher of the Year at CMS West, Coppell ISD, and for the entire Region 10 area. We are very luck to have her.”