Teacher Feature: Kiesela Foster, interviewed by Keith High journalism class

The Black Belt News Network is proud to present Teacher Feature, a storytelling series that highlights the extraordinary work of teachers and educators across the Black Belt. Through this series, we shine a light on an outstanding educator who has been nominated by their school or community for the difference they make in the lives of students.

This feature was written by Keith High School student Taylor Tisdale in partnership with the Keith High School Journalism Class and Black Belt News Network. Keith is the first high school to participate in the Teen Press Initiative, which is part of BBNN’s Black Belt Media Lab.

Tisdale is featuring her journalism/English teacher Kiesela Foster at Keith High in Orrville.

Have a teacher you admire at a school in the Black Belt? We want to hear about them. Nominate an amazing educator in your community by answering the same questions and sending a classroom photo to news@blackbeltnewsnetwork.com. Your submission could help us tell the next inspiring story in the Black Belt.

Name: Kiesela Foster

School: Keith High

Subject: English/Language arts and Journalism

If I walked into your classroom on a typical Tuesday, what would I experience?

If you walked into my classroom on a typical Tuesday, you would experience a highly productive and successful learning environment. You would observe that 75% of the pupils are actively engaged in their tasks, while the remaining 25% are unengaged. The atmosphere is meant to foster a sense of success.

How long would you survive in a zombie apocalypse based on your classroom management and experiences?

While I have never personally managed or experienced a zombie apocalypse, my classroom management skills are 110% give me great confidence that I would survive.

In which other teachers’ class would you like to enroll in for a week and why? Do you think you’d retain any information?

I would love to enroll in Ms. Nelson’s class for a week only to experience “the Nelson effect” firsthand and personally determine if the constant student riff raff, which includes positive and negative experiences, is actually warranted, rather than relying solely on secondhand discourse.

If the majority of your class failed a major assignment, is that a reflection of you or them? How do you move forward from that?

I would review that as a direct reflection on me and my teaching, as their teacher it is my responsibility to make sure they get the material so I would reteach and retest but if it’s still a failure I need to figure out what I’m doing wrong and rearrange the lesson to accommodate the students.

If you could have any superpower to use in the classroom what would it be?

My superpower would be to read minds. If I could read minds then the previous question about failure would be irrelevant because I would know how everyone is thinking while I’m teaching.

If money and time were no object, where would you take your students on a field trip and why?

I would take my students on a year long trip around the world. It would be a serious learning experience because we would hit all the major sites. We could go to the statue of liberty and write papers persuading people to come to the statue; or go to the Grand Canyon and describe how it fulfills the five senses.

This Q&A originally ran in Keith High's Bear Nation News. Read a digital version of the first Bear Nation News newspaper here.