Teacher Feature: Ms. Cottrill
The MHS science department is happy to have Ms. Cottrill as a new teacher
Ms. Carolyn Cottrill is a new teacher at Mead High School this year. She teaches science courses.
She was offered the job last spring and interviewed with some of her now colleagues, Ms. Shannon Krack, as well as with Assistant Principal Mr. Alain Valette.
Cottrill said, “They were really awesome, friendly, and welcoming… There’s a lot of community between the teachers and the administrators, [they’re] all working together to do their best for the kids.”
Cottrill originally wanted to be a doctor. She majored in chemistry and graduated from Columbia University with a medical degree. But after doing some research with patients, she decided that the medical route wasn’t the right career choice for her.
She stayed home with her children for about 15 years and when she wanted to go back to work, she chose to become a teacher because she was “really involved with her kids’ education and had a good background in science”.
She got her teaching certificate in 2009 and has been teaching ever since. Before Mead, she taught at a public school in New Jersey for 11 years called Watchung Hills Regional High School.
Being at Mead High for a couple months now, Cottrill said, “I’ve enjoyed getting to know the students. I also teach an AP class here, so I’m really looking forward to getting to that AP exam and seeing how my students do because they have been working really hard.”
Cottrill spoke on her time at Mead so far and said, “[This] school is smaller than the one I used to teach at, but there’s some really neat traditions.”
She added that she has some seniors in her classes, and she is “excited to see what [Mead does] for graduation”.