Eastipedia: Amy Andersen

Junior AP English teacher Amy Andersen takes pride not only in the content she’s teaching but the relationship she has with her students.

“An every-year goal I have is to be more sensitive to student needs and be kinder, but to be more firm, too,” said Andersen.

Having always taught high school age students in her eight-year career, Andersen enjoys having her mind broadened by the perspectives students have to offer. She says, “One specific thing I love about teaching is getting to have intriguing discussions and to see things in a way that I wouldn’t see it on my own.”

Another place in her life that Andersen has found a new life perspective is through her travels.

“I think traveling especially cross culturally is one of the best things that we can do to have our worldview expanded,” she said.

As a part of a 10-week Ethiopian outreach program in 2005, she met people with life-threatening illnesses that got to that point just because of a lack of shoes.

“It was humbling to be able to serve people through the simple act of removing thorns from their feet and showing them how to have good hygiene,” said Andersen. “Most of them had very swollen feet, puss, so we would help to clean and drain out the wounds and provide shoes, that kind of thing.”

Another humbling experience that has surprised Andersen was her involvement last year in the Social Skills class. Her involvement was unexpected, spurred by a group email from the special education department that caught her interest. She describes the class as “very eye opening and incredible to observe.”

Andersen said, “We come from a lot of different backgrounds and daily schedules but in that room I’m always impressed with how everyone functions as a team.”

Other than that, not much has surprised Andersen about East. She said, “I expected great things. I think so highly of our student body; it amazes me how much our students are involved in.”

A hobby that Mrs. Andersen thinks sets her apart from some English teachers is her love of poetry. She loves teaching it but also writing her own. After submitting her portfolio to her professor at UMKC, who was also the editor of their literary magazine, he asked her if he could publish her poem, “She Stole the British Romantics”.

“Honestly, the poem was no more or less important to me than any other, it was the luck of the draw,” said Andersen.

Something many in the building may not know is that before getting married Mrs. Andersen was Ms. Anderson. When she got engaged, she brought her students donuts and they had a “Farewell O” party because she was changing the one letter in her last name.

“This was one of the greatest moments of my life to share with students,” she said.

Andersen sets goals every year for how to become a stronger teacher, and this year she hopes to focus on the content, how she teaches, and how she relates with students.

“I have a whole philosophy of teachers, I feel that there are good teachers and great teachers and the ones who are great teachers are the ones that in the later part of their career were willing to learn, who have been flexible and allowed themselves to grow instead of becoming bitter or grumpy,” she said.
Mrs. Andersen hopes to be one of those teachers and to continue learning from the different perspectives of others.
Andersen is also the sponsor for the SM East Freelancer