Jane Rendon is a Spanish teacher at Carbondale Community High School (CCHS), and currently the world language department chair. Rendon has worked hard throughout her career, working hard to provide a safe and comfortable learning environment for her students.
“…I think I did a good job. I think that students learned in my classroom and I feel like they knew they had someone who cared about them and wanted the best for them” Rendon said.
Rendon is bound to have learned a thing or two about teaching, since she has been teaching for 40 years. Rendon is going to retire soon, and she is looking forward to being able to do things she enjoys that she doesn’t have the time to do otherwise.
“…My favorite thing is to be on my porch in the morning with a cup of coffee and a good book” Rendon said.
Rendon has a close workplace friendship with Melisa Lopez, a much younger Spanish teacher. Lopez takes a lot of inspiration from Rendon.
“…She is good with reading people and troubleshooting issues that I’ve had with students or parents” Lopez said.
Lopez has some insight on what makes a successful teacher.
“[A successful teacher is] Someone who can connect with students, and then somebody who can obviously teach that material in a way that does connect with them” Lopez said.
This sentiment of what makes a good teacher is similar to Ryan Thomas’s beliefs on what a good teacher is.
Thomas is the principal at CCHS currently, and he used to be a teacher. Thomas thinks that in order to be a good teacher, you have to be good at communicating, have a good work ethic, and actually care about each individual student.
“…all of the same attributes of success mentioned before…being a good teacher, holding kids accountable is important, like I tell kids all the time, there’s always gonna be expectations” Thomas said.
Thomas also believes in the importance of balancing rules and structure, with an open-mind and empathy. Thomas believes Rendon is good at this.
“She works hard, she’s very organized, she communicates well…She gets to know her students, she builds relationships with her students.” Thomas said.
Rendon’s colleagues certainly seem to agree that Rendon is, in fact, a good teacher.
