Becky Haenfler teaches English Language Arts for grades 5-7 at Avon School District. She has been a teacher for 19 years.

What made you decide to become a teacher?
I don’t remember wanting to do anything else. Initially, it was having a good experience going to school in Avon. Having a great experience as a student made me want to come back to school to keep doing this.

As an ELA teacher, what book or story or concept is your favorite to teach?
I really get into our novels. With grades 5-7, I try to teach about eight novels. I have a lot of favorites. For fifth grade, I love teaching Bud, Not Buddy. It gets us into what it’s like to read a novel in class. In sixth grade, we read The Watsons Go to Birmingham. That’s from the same author as Bud, Not Buddy, so we get to expand on what they learned in fifth grade.

For seventh grade, I like to lean into historical fiction: Fever 1793, The Wednesday Wars, and others. In seventh grade, we read realistic fiction, then science fiction with The Giver, and other genres as well. They aren’t going to fall in love with all of the books, but I like to expose them to all types.

Right now, my fifth graders are reading Bridge to Terabithia. We read Holes - I have 10 boys and one girl in fifth this year, and it fits them so well.

What’s the best part of teaching?
I think it’s making connections with the kids in and out of the building. Avon is a small school, and with that, I’m part of after school activities as well. The connection doesn’t stop in the classroom. Watching the students grow from year to year. I get to watch them go all the way through. There’s something special about that. You’re impacting them, but they’re impacting you. They impact me as much as I impact them.

What’s the most challenging part of teaching?
Making sure you’re giving every student what they need. There are so many different needs in the classroom. I want to make sure every student gets what they need. Making sure – am I pushing that child enough, am I accommodating enough, am I challenging enough? In the end, it’s about maximizing each child’s potential.

Do you have a favorite class project you like to do with your students?
There are a couple. Over the course of the whole year, fifth and sixth do interactive notebooks. We put information from every novel into that notebook. At the end of the year, they have a huge binder that shows what they learned and how they learned it. They love looking back at that.

My sixth graders write a letter to their future selves. Then I deliver it to them on their senior graduation. I include a letter from myself too. That’s a fun one for me too.

We celebrate Kobe day on Aug. 24 by watching Dear Basketball, his short film. We celebrate what that poem means.

What’s the most useful advice you can give to a new teacher who’s just starting out?
I think I would tell them to make sure they are using the resources in the building – that’s the people in the building. Take help from them and collaborate with them. Any teacher is willing to help anyone else. Don’t lose your passion for wanting to be in the classroom. Finding things to light your fire is also important.