Catamount Times
April, 2016
An Interview with Mr. White, a Welcome
Addition to Our Teaching Staff
Mr. White is a new 4th-grade
teacher at our school this year, after
teaching 4th grade for several years
at Newbury Elementary School. He
grew up in England, and went to the
King Edward VI high school in Stratford-upon-Avon – rumored to
be the school that William
Shakespeare himself attended - and also attended
Johnson State College.
Here are some excerpts from my interview with Mr. White.
Q: What are five
adjectives that
you would use
to describe
yourself?
A:
Determined, thoughtful,
forthright,
hardworking and swashbuckling.
Q: What are you currently reading
for enjoyment?
A: I am reading Endurance by Alfred
Lansing. It’s a true story about a
group of explorers who were stranded
during an Antarctic expedition. The
explorers, who were led by Ernest
Shackleton, had to get themselves out
of the situation as there was no way
Mrs. Ferrin-Smith Loves Teaching
and Learning
who taught 3rd grade. He set the bar
pretty high, but he made sure you had
fun trying to get there.
Q: What made you want to become a
teacher?
A: Being a teacher was something I
had always thought about doing, and I
knew it would be an outlet for the creative energy that I’d used in my
theater career.
Q: What interests do you
pursue outside of the
classroom?
A: When not
spending
time with
my family,
you might find
me
mountain
biking on the
Kingdom Trails or
trying out a new recipe in my kitchen.
Q: What is your favorite
food?
A: I love Indian food like
chicken tikka masala and
lamb rogan josh.
Q: Who is your role model?
A: My dad is my role model. He taught
me an awful lot about working hard,
speaking up for what you believe in,
and knowing how to have fun.
Mrs. Ferrin-Smith, a 3rd-grade
teacher who was my favorite 2ndgrade teacher when I was in 2nd
grade, is very interesting. When I
asked her a bunch of questions, she
gave me some responses that were
the complete opposite of what I expected.
If you know Mrs. Ferrin-Smith, you
probably know that she loves to run
and hike. But do you know that she
also likes to paint because she finds it
relaxing? I certainly didn’t know that
about her.
Mrs. Ferrin-Smith has wanted to be
a teacher since she was in kindergarten, but the idea of becoming a college coach also crossed her mind.
She is happy teaching and helping
and inspiring kids like her teachers did
for her.
When it comes to picking one best thing about all of her
time teaching … Mrs. Ferrin-Smith can’t do it, because
she learns something new every year that she teaches.
Being a teacher was something I had always thought
about doing, and I knew it would be an outlet for the
creative energy that I’d used in my theater career.
- Mr. White
rescuers could get to them. It’ ́