I had the opportunity to ask Ms. Salisbury a few questions to get to know her more! She used to be a day-to-day substitute teacher and now she is hired full-time here at New Castle. 

Q: What classes do you teach? 

I teach ELA 7, ELA 8, and Research and Career Awareness for grade 8

Q: Where did you go to college?

I went to college at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio.

Q: What is the biggest difference between full-time teaching and subbing?

What a great question! As a substitute, I took my job very seriously and treated every position that I subbed for as my own. In that sense, not much has changed; I still learn about my students, create lessons to help them learn the material, and track their progress. The biggest difference that I can think of would be how much time I have with one group of students. Excluding my Research and Career Awareness classes (the course duration is only nine weeks), I have my students all year. As a long-term substitute, I spent only a portion of the year with one group of students before their regular classroom teacher returned. As a full-time teacher, the classes are mine, and I’m lucky enough to work with the same group of students for the whole school year.

Q: What is your favorite thing about teaching?

That’s hard to choose! One of my favorite things is getting to know all of my students and watching them grow throughout the school year. I’ve come to know so many students, each of them on their own learning journey, and it’s exciting and rewarding to be a part of that journey.

Q: How many years have you been subbing and teaching?

Altogether, this is my fourth year as an educator. I was a long-term substitute for three years, and this is my first year as a full-time teacher.

Q: What are your favorite hobbies?

Oh no, this is going to be hard to answer! I have a lot of hobbies that I enjoy. My current hobby at the moment is reading. I’m reading a couple of different books right now, one of which is on loan from one of my students. It’s called Ground Zero by Alan Gratz. I’m also reading When You Wonder, You’re Learning by Gregg Behr and Ryan Rydzewski.

I also like to crochet, play video games, watch TV, do outdoor stuff like hiking and camping, learn other languages, and write. I’m sure there are some hobbies that I’m forgetting; I like to learn and do new things all the time.

Thank you Ms. Salisbury for taking the time to answer our questions. Hope you have a good rest of the year!