As much as possible, I think that the role of a teacher is to provide students with tools and skills that will benefit them in their college and career experiences; those tools and skills should be packaged with (but not confined to) the content of our disciplines.”
Marguerite’s Story
Teaching Discipline
Physics
Why Physics
“In physics students learn about how forces, motion, and energy govern the natural world; but equally as important, they also learn how mathematics is used as a tool to find answers to previously unknown problems. I want them to be able to apply this same kind of thinking to any problem that they come across, where they have to figure out how to apply a set of knowledge to a problem in order to solve it.”
Professional Experience
In high school and college, Marguerite worked as a teaching assistant in language classes, and in a physics workshop and lab for one year.
Marguerite spent a year in Shenzhen, China teaching English as a foreign language to high school students, and a year in Medan, Indonesia teaching middle school math and science. After returning to the U.S., Marguerite worked as a space science educator at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry for five years.
Marguerite began teaching at West Salem High School during the 2017–18 school year.
Hobbies
Marguerite enjoys gardening, cooking, and canning during the summer. She sings with a respected community choir, and enjoys board games and role playing games with friends.
Academic Background
- Portland State University (Master of Education)
- Portland State University (Bachelor of Science in Physics)
- Mount Holyoke College (Bachelor of Arts in English)