New staff member, Katie Eppinger, is a special education teacher at Prospect who teaches math. She attended undergraduate school at Monmouth College and double majored in math and secondary education. Eppinger then went to graduate school at Dominican University and received her masters in education. She previously taught at Plainfield South High School and Chicago High School for the Liberal Arts. Eppinger is super excited for her journey here at Prospect.
Q: What made you want to teach special education and math at Prospect?
A: “I’ve always really enjoyed working with students in small groups and trying to help make math accessible to students. By helping them understand and trying to like math a little bit more.”
Q: When did you know you wanted to be a special education teacher?
A: “I realized my favorite part of the teaching was working with students in smaller groups. I was tutoring before and after school and working with students that struggled with math a lot more. I really enjoyed seeing that light bulb go off with students and a lot of times I work with a lot of students that did not like math because they had such bad experiences. So I wanted to try and get into special education.”
Q: What made you want to major in math?
A: “I’ve always enjoyed the subject in school. Specifically, I wanted to go into teaching math. I just remember having a teacher in high school that did not teach math in a way that I learned. So I used to spend a lot of time at home trying to teach myself and I really struggled in that class and never used to really struggle in math. So I realized that I didn’t want other people to have to struggle like this and I worked with some of my other classmates and helped them out and just realizing that there’s different ways to teach something and I wanted to be able to do that for other people so they don’t have to struggle and can learn in a way that helps them.”
Q: How would you describe your teaching style?
A: “I like doing a lot of different interactive activities. Trying to make more games out of things, even though you’re still doing the math. Finding different technology or moving around the class, those kinds of things.”
Q: Why did you choose Prospect?
A: “I heard a lot of amazing things about Prospect. I lived in Chicago, but my family moved to the suburbs. I was looking for a job in the suburbs and Prospect came up multiple times. It had such great awards and teachers really like working here, which is a big thing. There’s a lot of retention, which shows that it’s a great district.”
Q: What do you love about Prospect so far?
A: “I love how there’s so much school spirit. Everyone’s really proud to be here. Not just the students in sports and clubs, but also the teachers, love working here. The resources we have here are incredible. Everyone is trying to do better, keep up with technology and learn new ways. I think it’s awesome.”
Q: What has been your favorite memory as a teacher?
A: “When I was in Chicago, I had a couple of students who just really did not like math. It was a class where I always had a little bit more flexibility and freedom. I was able to get their interests and one of them was really interested in being a car mechanic. So we were able to go to one of the car shops down the block and we were able to talk to them about what kind of math they use there. We talked to the manager that worked there and he’s talking about the fact that he uses things that he learned in school. So we kind of incorporated those things back into the classroom. It was fun to get the students more involved, more engaged and holding what we were learning.”
Q: What is one of your biggest interests outside of teaching?
A: “I really enjoy traveling and being outdoors. Finding different things to do around here, where I can drive. I just went to Starved Rock a couple weeks ago.”
