You may have seen or hadNoelle Pollard, Morgan’s new mathematics substitute teacher while she was filling in for Julien Milcent for 6 weeks. Now Ms. Pollard is subbing for math teacher Stephane Davis. Ms. Pollard is from Groton and currently is still residing there. She has lived in Connecticut her whole life attending University of Connecticut as an undergraduate. She recently graduated Sacred Heart with her master’s in Mathematics. Originally, Ms. Pollard said she thought she would like to have a career in banking but quickly realized that her love for education and problem-solving was much greater than her love for her previous aspiration.

While in college, she also found her love for teaching high school students. She can connect to them better not only academically but also developmentally. Ms. Pollard understands that high school is a time of transition. Students are exploring different interests hoping to discover their passions.

Teaching is a challenging job and requires much patience and strategic thinking. Usually, students think the last thing they would want is to come back and teach. But this wasn’t the case for Ms. Pollard. She explains that “Ever since I was little I always knew that I would become a teacher. I was always good at math and knew that it would definitely be an area of interest in my career.” She explains that while in school she noticed that others around her would struggle with topics when she excelled. She would find some of her first sparks of energetic passion right in the classroom as a student. Another factor in Ms. Pollard’s high school education was an after-school program. Students from high school would go over to the younger grades and assist the students with their schoolwork. Indeed, this gave her a first insight into what it is like to teach.
We have all been there, we are struggling and all we see is a tunnel of darkness. We think to ourselves “this is impossible, and how on earth could I ever do this?” It all seems hopeless. You get the test score back, and it’s not satisfactory. Subjects such as math can be most difficult because there is always a right or wrong answer. But as Ms. Pollard believes, the right answer is only half of the work. The expression commonly used in math and that some students come to dread is “show your work.” But why is this? The only way Ms. Pollard can help a student is by seeing their thought process. Think about the eyes like a movie projector. Everyone is technically looking at the same equation, but every person is in a different movie. What students see in the movie, affects how they look at an equation. Ms. Pollard lives for that movie. She enjoys seeing the lights inside her students’ eyes every time they begin to understand the problem.