Ms. Molly Walsh is starting her first year as an English teacher in staff. Ms. Walsh was a teacher at Anderson High School, but came to Westwood because she felt this was the right place for her.

“When you are looking for a job, you want to find somewhere where you and everybody around you is excited to wake up and go to work every day. I thought that was the case here,” Ms. Walsh said.

Ms. Walsh is very passionate about teaching and loves to share her knowledge about English and inspire kids everyday. She believes that her students have a lot of potential, and she hopes to help bring that out in them.

“I like teaching because I love being able to help students feel confident about something that they can do,” Ms. Walsh said. “Every student has the power to do something amazing, and I hope that in my class everyone feels that way. I love English, and I love that I can share something that I love with my students.”

Ms. Walsh’s favorite part about teaching is that every day is unpredictable.

“[I enjoy] getting to meet someone new and do something new every single day,” Ms. Walsh said.“It’s always kind of a lottery — you never know what’s gonna happen, so it’s always exciting.”

Ms. Walsh believes that English taught her many valuable life lessons, and she wants to teach the same to her students.  

“English had always been my favorite subject. In my English class, I felt like I learnt how to communicate with people, I made decisions on how I viewed the world, and that really helped me with everything in the rest of my life,” Ms. Walsh said. “I felt like my English class gave me a voice, and I hope that I can help my students with the same thing.”

Ms. Walsh’s teaching philosophy is to give students the opportunity to be creative in the classroom.

“I think it’s really important to give students the choice to learn in way that best helps them. Giving students any creative outlet is the best way to make sure that the student understands something,” Ms. Walsh said.

By the end of the year, Ms. Walsh hopes that her class will have helped her students achieve personal growth.

“I hope all my students will become better readers and writers, and will have a better understanding of the world around them, and that they know when they wake up every day, they can make an impact,” Ms. Walsh said.