Teacher of the Month: Johaneett Wolfschoon

The Source had the opportunity to talk with the chosen teacher of the month, Johanneett Wolfschoon, 9th grade’s math teacher. Some of the questions asked, at the behest of the students, include a description of her day to day life, her favorite grades to teach, her favorite class, and more.

Question: How is your day to day life as a teacher?

T. Johaneett: Okay, as a teacher, I come here early in the morning to prepare for what I'm going to do during the day, and I think it’s a lot of fun. Obviously, I need to repeat the topics four times, and each classroom is going to be different because in one they say, "Oh, this is so easy” and in the other they say "Ah, I don’t understand anything”, so it’s like an equilibrium. But it’s fine. It’s a lot of fun.

Question: Which grade do you enjoy teaching the most?

T. Johaneett: I think the grade that I’m teaching now, 9th graders, because they are just in the middle; they are not so young, but they are not so old. So, I prefer to be in ninth grade.

Question: Would you ever like to teach at higher levels?

T. Johaneett: I did it for like two years, not here, in another school; I taught ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth, and the answer is... no. I don’t like it; something happens when they pass to the tenth, eleventh, or twelfth. So, I prefer to be with ninth graders.

Question: What is your favorite class?

T. Johaneett: Yes, my favorite class is... no, I’m just kidding, there is no favorite class. There’s no one favorite—all of them are my favorite.

Question: Do you have a favorite memory of virtual classes?

T. Johaneett: I remember an accident in which Pablo Ramirez was involved; they were in the test, and there he was with the camera on, and then something happened with the orange juice in the test, and he was like “Ayyy teacher, sorry”, and it was filming everything.

*she laughs.

There’s another one; it was Luo. I was calling him, “You’re not in the class! Hey, you’re late”, and he said “Teacher, sorry, I’m falling asleep”. And I was like “Ok, try to be on time next time”. At least he was honest.

Question: How many years have you been teaching at OIS?

T. Johaneett: At OIS, I’ve been teaching for like 10 years. Well, I spent two years outside. I took two years going to Europe, just kidding *she laughs*. I worked in another school. I started here in 2010, four years and then I came back in 2017 until right now.

Question: What influenced you to be a teacher?

T. Johaneett: I used to work as a secretary in a school like 12 years ago. And then someone called me, saying, “Hey, I have a girl that needs tutoring in 4th grade in English." And I was like, “Okay, I know Math and English” and I realized that I love that, because the girl was like, “Johanneett, I did great. I got a five.” Then, I spent five years tutoring, and then I said “Hey, yes, I loved this”, and then I decided to study it.

Question: Where did you study? Did you actually get to study this profession?

T. Johanneett: Yes, the only place was the University of Panama. There is one classroom per year; there were four. One year is just one classroom where we were 25 students at the beginning and we ended with just like 10. So, yes, it was a little bit difficult.

Question: So, wait, did they get eliminated or drop out?

T. Johanneett: *she giggles* Both. It is difficult; it is very difficult.

Question: Why are you such a good teacher?

T. Johaneett: *she laughs* Well, I’m happy you think I’m a good teacher. I try every day to improve myself. I love to listen to others, to my students, and to what they need. Sometimes, maybe I have a student that is not good at a topic, but when I hear that person, I understand what happened—problems at home or problems with things like boyfriends, things like that. And all of that stuff has an effect, so I’m like “Ok, let’s do this”, and I talk with my colleagues, “How do you do this? How do you do that?” and I learn the best things, and I leave out the not so great.