Teacher Spotlight: Jennifer Swinson

Meet the only teacher who knows how to talks without making a sound. Ms. Swinson our ASL teacher. Ms. Swinson is one of the very few ASL teachers, and the only ASL teacher in Lafayette high school. She single-handily keeps one of the most important languages alive and thriving at Lafayette.

INTERVIEW

Q–Why did you come to LHS?

A–“That’s a great question…because they told me too. [laughing] it was between Warhill and this one and they chose this one…and honestly, I’m glad they did.”

Q–How many years have you been here?

A– “Seven…eight?…no seven.”

Q–What collage did you go to?

A--“I went to Barton collage in North Carolina.”

Q–Why did you decide to teach?

A–“Ooo I’ve always wanted to be a teacher ever since I was young but I went for deaf education first and got y degree in that and after I taught deaf kids for ten years I transferred to hear and am now teaching ASL.”

Q–What do you love about your job?

A–“I love the student teacher connections and all the fun things they bring me its been fun its always different everyday is a new day.”

Q–what are your hobbies outside of school.

A–“Having fun with my son we go to different places and hike and go outside as much as possible i like to exercise and travel.”

Q–If you had a superpower what and why?

A–“Oooo that is so hard I think I would do the uhmmm teleportation. I want to be able to go like this [snaps] and be somewhere else real quick.”

Q–Do you have any warnings or advice for new teachers?

A–“Why would you do that to me,? Uhm my advice to new teachers is if your not,.. if you fell into this profession its not for you if you uhm actually wanted this you wanted to go into this then this will be just fine and honestly you do it because you love it, you love the kids. my warning is that its not like it used to be.. As teachers we had a lot more control over what we taught, how we taught it and that has been taken away from us and it can be frustrating”

Q–Cats or dogs?

A–“Dogs! Obviously!”