What was the moment you knew that you wanted to be a teacher?
“I had started subbing in a middle school, and one day we were reading poetry and the kids seemed bored,” department chair and English teacher Jillian Bowen said. “I had them close their eyes and raise their hands every time they saw an image. Then I had them open their eyes up and everyone of them had their hands up. So I was like, ‘Okay, let’s talk about the images that you saw.’ Just seeing the light bulbs going off and then seeing how excited they were about talking about something really just kind of inspired me.”
Why did you choose this subject?
“I majored in English at UGA and just really always loved English. So when I decided to teach, it honestly made perfect sense,” Bowen said. “But really the reason I wanted to teach English is that it let’s us know so much about people, and why people do the things that they do. It really just reveals motivations that people have had for centuries.”
What do you enjoy about teaching high school students?
“High school students have that unique ability to have fun, but also be mature young adults,” Bowen said. “So you’re able to have more in-depth conversations, and it’s important to because especially high school seniors are about to go out into the real world.”
Tell me about your favorite day of teaching.
“Any time my kids get into a discussion or really kind of see the value of what we’re talking about and can apply it to their lives,” Bowen said. “That’s probably my favorite time. Seeing how they are connecting and the lessons they can take away from the books we’ve read.”
Why not a different career?
“I’ve looked at a couple of different options, and honestly the thing I love most about teaching is that there is no moment of any day that is exactly the same,“ Bowen said. “Even though I teach a couple of the same classes in a row, those classes are never going to respond to the material the same way. While I might have the same end goal, the way we get there is completely different.”
What was the moment you knew that you wanted to be a teacher?
“When I was in high school I had the same English teacher my freshman and junior year. Prior to that I had taken all of the medical classes at my school, and I was going to be an anesthesiologist,” English teacher Justin Spencer said. “Then in the spring of my junior year, we watched ‘Dead Poets Society,’ and at that moment, after watching that film and crying with all my classmates, that’s when I decided I wanted to be an English teacher. I changed my mind, and haven’t looked back since.”
Why did you choose this subject?
“I have everything I have ever written since 8th grade. Words to me have always been a sanctuary, a place to go when you are in your feels,” Spencer said. “I always go to words, my words on a page, other people’s words through music. If I can unlock that for students, if I can help them discover those places through their own words and find those places to better understand themselves and better understand the world, then that’s pretty cool.”
What do you enjoy about teaching high school students?
“For me I know personally the gap between my sophomore and junior year was a huge turning point for me in my education,” Spencer said. “There is always a lot of growth and development that happens, not just in terms of student ability in the classroom, but just world view development. Seeing the growth from the beginning of sophomore year in the fall to the end of sophomore year in the spring is really a powerful thing to see.”
- Teaches 10th grade literature and advises The Prowler
- 21 years at Starr’s Mill
- “When students leave my class, I hope that they have learned not only the power of the present moment but that I have helped empower them to take ownership of the present moment.”
Tell me about your favorite day of teaching.
“Any day I get to walk into this building. I think each and every day is what we make of it,” Spencer said. “Regardless of our circumstances, we can choose, and no matter how potentially stressful a situation, we can choose our reaction. I always talk with my students of how no one can make you be angry, no one can make you happy. Those are things we have to choose.”
Why not a different career?
“The big thing isn’t so much about what is the life I want to live as it’s so much what is the life that wants to live through me,” Spencer said. “What is that wind song that is coming from wherever. Whether you’re religious, whether that wind song is coming from God or that wind song that’s coming from a place deeper than me. Is my entire wind song being a high school English teacher? No, but currently at this point in my life, at this point in my journey, part of that wind song that is playing through me and that I’m being directed and guided to let play through me is to be a high school English teacher.”