Alison Dodd teaches English 9 and A.P. World History at South. She’s been teaching for 13 years and has been at South for four. Dodd is a bright, bubbly, charismatic, and incredibly caring person. From connecting with her students about Taylor Swift, to approaching teaching with genuine passion and curiosity, any student at South would be lucky to have her.
Dodd double majored in international relations and history and minored in French. She also studied abroad in Paris for a year, which completely immersed her in a different language and culture. This was an incredibly transformative experience in her life.
“[It was] also one of the most frightening experiences of my life, like, opening a bank account in another country and another language is really challenging. But it definitely just encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone and I think living in another country does that so much,” Dodd said.
Another thing she gained studying abroad was a stronger sense of empathy for people in the United States whose native languages aren’t English.
“It’s really frustrating when you’re like ‘oh my gosh, I’m having a really hard time communicating what I wanna say,’” Dodd said. “And having to do classwork and presentations in French when that is not my native language really helped develop that empathy. It was one of those things like ‘oh if I can do that, whatever I’ll face in grad school or in my working world, at least I won’t have to give a presentation in French on, like, the politics of the E.U.’”
In high school, Dodd’s biggest dream was to be a part of the United Nations and help to make the world a better place, but she learned she could also do that by teaching.
“I was a graduate teaching fellow, which was great because it funded my grad school, and I also got to teach some of the college freshman discussion sections,” Dodd explained. “I was doing that and I realized I like teaching a lot more than I like researching and I [wanted to] teach high school.”
Teaching freshmen versus seniors is a very different experience, so when asked the differences and similarities between teaching English and A.P. World History, Dodd explained that it really boils down to the age of her students.
“I genuinely do love teaching freshmen, I feel like getting to help shepherd my freshman through their first year of high school is a really great experience and we have a lot of fun,” she said. “And what I really like is if I’ve taught students as a freshman, this is the first year that I got to teach some of those students in A.P. World History. [I love] just getting to watch how much they’ve changed and grown.”
Although Dodd has a very impressive 100% A.P. World History test pass-rate, she’s most proud of being able to work with her students and inspire them to put an effort into school and start believing in themselves.
“I think I’m most proud when there’s a student that’s failing English 9 and I can work with them to encourage them to start coming to class and believe in themselves and know that they can do it,” she said. “I’m the proudest when I can get a student to start engaging in school again and to have them start believing in themselves.”
Article by Maya Robershaw