Rachel Wickham says that she’s always thought she’d be a teacher.
“This has always been my passion,” Wickham said. “I really, really enjoy working with younger folks over adults.”
Wickham has been teaching at Freedom High School for eight years. She’s taught Creative Writing, English 10 Honors, English 10 Academic, English 9 Honors and Theater. Wickham thought about going into nursing for some time, but decided against it.
“Well, instead of helping people when they’re falling apart, why don’t I help them while they’re growing?” Wickham said. “I decided to pursue teaching because I really wanted to do something to give back to the community.”
Wickham had two other jobs before teaching. In college, Wickham volunteered at a cat adoption center where the cats were free range. She also worked as a production assistant, where she would bring things on stage, control the lights or open the door to the stage. Wickham said that being a production assistant was her favorite job besides teaching.
“I got to listen to beautiful classical music every time I worked, which was amazing, because we would have professionals and college students come in.” Wickham said. “So I was just being serenaded by beautiful music all the time. And my job is so simple.”
Wickham only teaches two English Classes in a regular classrooms. Her other classes are taught in the black box. Wickham said that she loved having a window to look outside and see what the weather was like was a simple thing that made her really happy.
“I’ve never gotten to teach in a room with a window. We have windows, and it’s such a small thing that it makes such a big difference for my emotional well being,” Wickham said.
Wickham said that there are some overlaps between Theater and English, while not so much overlap in Technical Theater, but a lot of helpful things that are learned in English that help with Theater.
“I would say, like, all the basic plot elements that I’m teaching you guys right now, character and like characterization absolutely connecting to them. Absolutely connect to the like acting and character analysis.”
Wickham explained that she would love teaching just English classes, or just Theater classes, but really likes getting to teach both classes.
