Ms. Rachel LeJeune joined the Coyote faculty this year, teaching AudioVisual Production I and Career Exploration. LeJeune is a former Coyote student and a member of the class of 2015. Emonie Bailey Pollock sat down with her to ask a few questions.
Q: What grade or grades do you teach now?
A: So, I’m a CTE (Career and Technical Education) teacher, and I have a little mix of everybody. It’s supposed to be like a freshman-sophomore class, but schedules happen.
Q: How long have you worked here?
A: Since August. This has been my first year.
Q: What made you want to be a teacher?
A: Mr. King presented me with this position when I was working at another school. It was a very toxic environment, and he was like “I know you want to get out of that so here’s this opportunity if you wanna come to check it out. You can come to the school, meet the admin, and see if you like it. If it’s not for you, then don’t worry about it.” So I took a leap of faith and just kind of did it.
Q: Who was your favorite teacher when you went here?
A: I have a lot. When I went here my senior year my favorite teachers were Mrs. Coots and Ms. Reed (former AV Production teacher).
Q: What was it like when you went here? Like was it the same, or was it different?
A: Yeah, it was different
Q: Different how?
A: When I went here, it was chill. You could be a theatre student and be friends with a football player and it wasn’t a problem. Like there wasn’t a status queue. People were just friends with everybody.
Q: When you were a student here did you think you would become a teacher here?
A: No, if you were to tell me that I was going to be a teacher here when I was in high school, I would have thought that you were crazy, but I am happy to be back. It’s really cool to be on the other side, and it’s cool to see behind the scenes and see the side that students don’t know about. It made me a lot more grateful for the teacher that I did have, like “Oh, man, you all actually cared and did a lot for me. Thanks!”
Q: When you were a student here, how did you view yourself here?
A: I was pretty involved in high school. I viewed myself as a good student. I was a good student. We had CET that they brought back, and they had it live for the whole school to watch, so every Friday we got to watch our school’s news broadcast. I was on that production team, so people got to know me through that. I also played sports, so I knew the athletes, I did theatre, so I knew the theatre kids. We all just kind of meshed together. So I view myself as a chill good student.
Q: What sports did you play?
A: I did soccer and tennis
Q: What advice do you have for students that go here now?
A: High school flies and I definitely encourage people to be involved. Not only does it look suitable for colleges, it’s fun like it’s so fun to go to games with your friends, or get ready for homecoming and prom, just doing scholastic activities outside of school helps you get to know the school, the faculty, and the community.
Q: Is there anything that you would like to say that we haven’t covered?
A: I love my students, but I won’t tell them that because it’ll get to their heads.
