By Valeria Benitez
You might be surprised to learn that new English teacher Taylor Parker’s favorite periods were P.E and lunch when she was in high school.
I found Ms. Parker in the English department center, and then we headed to the skybox to chat. Her passion for teaching was immediately clear.
Ms. Parker said that her favorite type of class to teach is one where students are engaging and laughing. She does not like quiet or boring classes because she remembers in high school those were her least favorite type of classes. She likes to play games with her students and keep them active. Earlier that day, she had a literary circle and was so excited to see the students interact.
Surprisingly, Ms. Parker did not always enjoy English. “I felt that my ninth, tenth, and eleventh grade English classes were very difficult for me because they were the books that I had trouble reading,” she said. That’s why she has a lot of empathy for students who struggle or don’t like English at all.
But in her senior year, when she took AP Language and Composition, she discovered that she liked creative nonfiction. She realized that she liked reading about people’s lives and that’s when “the world of books and reading opened up to me.”
As a rising freshman, I asked her if she remembers anything about her first day of high school and what advice she would give to freshmen. She told me that she remembers her first day of high school very well. She attended Savannah Country Day School from pre-K through senior year, so it wasn’t as scary to start high school since she already knew most of the people.
Still, she said it was “nerve-racking because everyone is older than you and you’re back at the bottom again.” So she understands those who are nervous at first. She advised rising 9th graders to enjoy every single moment of high school because they were the best four years of her life and you can’t go back. “Unless you’re a teacher,” she added, and we laughed.
Besides English, Ms. Parker has a ton of sports interests. She’s the assistant varsity volleyball coach under Coach Sutherland and so she started coming to Lovett back in May and attended practices all summer. Being a coach has helped her to feel part of the community, especially since she now has a group of thirty girls that run up to her in the hallway and say, “Hey, Coach Parker.” It makes her day.
Ms. Parker will likely go from coach to player at this year’s faculty-student basketball game. She can’t wait. “I’m known to shoot some three-pointers,” she told me. She loved playing basketball in high school, and encouraged students to stick with their sports because you’ll never get the opportunity to play on the court as a teenager again.
Perhaps that explains why P.E. was one of her favorite subjects.
Lovely article about Ms. Parker!