Getting a new job is always exciting, a fresh start with new coworkers and challenges. A challenge most don’t have to face, however, is the impending closure of your workplace.
That’s the unique situation life teacher Jennifer Kopp along with English teacher Megan Thonsgaard find themselves in having joined Rider for its final semester.
Jumping in halfway through the school year brings its own challenges.
“I would say the hardest thing is learning the students, like trying to create lessons that you can engage the students with when you’re just jumping in the middle,” Kopp said. “You’re starting from ground zero, but they are not starting from ground zero. Trying to make sure you’re still being effective, it’s basically just starting all over. I’ve never done anything like that before, so it’s kind of different.”
While the first semester allots teachers time to get comfortable with their students, the second semester is much more rapid.
“Everybody does their ‘get to know you’ stuff at the start of the year, but I don’t get the time to do that,” Thonsgaard said. “So some teachers might take a full week at the start of the school year to get to know their students. I only have a couple of days, I still have content to cover too. I want to get to know my students, but I just don’t have a lot of time.”
Missing the first semester means not getting the chance to experience the football games and pep rallies along with many other culture-building traditions.
“Rider’s closing is mildly devastating,” Thonsgaard said. “Everyone’s told me that there are so many traditions here at Rider, and a lot of them happen with football and pep rallies and that good stuff, so having to hear about all that I missed was a little bit painful. Knowing all that is missed, it’s heartbreaking, but I am excited that I can close this year out with Rider, and it will be a fantastic thing to put on my resume.”
Despite Kopp being new to the school, she understands the impact of its closure.
“I don’t think I’ve quite comprehended the school ending,” Kopp said. “When people say that, even for announcements, they mention it being the last semester ever, and it’s just such a massive thing to think about. A school that has such a massive history and heritage, it being the last semester, it feels like an honor to be able to be a part of it.”
Even though the stresses of beginning at a new school midyear are undeniable, there is also an excitement in it as well.
“I love meeting people that I’ve not met, it’s fun to me to meet people that you don’t even realize exist, and then you get to do life with them every day,” Kopp said. “Learning about both the adults and the students in the room, learning what they do and don’t love, it’s been really rewarding.”
Special education wasn’t what Kopp initially saw for herself, but oftentimes life has other plans.
“I was initially going to do general education, but I graduated COVID year, in 2020, so I had a really difficult time finding a job in general,” Kopp said. “I knew the principal at this school and he offered the special education job to me. I told him I didn’t have the experience yet, and he told me that he’d help me get it.
“I immediately fell in love with the kiddos, they had a huge heart, and I enjoy the challenge of different levels of learners, and trying to reach and meet them. Those students I had that first year, they’re what inspired me to keep going, because they need someone who loves them, sees them as valuable, and teaches at their level.”
Thonsgaard has always gotten to see education in a more up-close and personal level than most.
“My mom is what inspired me to want to become a teacher,” Thonsgaard said. “I was homeschooled K-12, so I got to see not just the side of being a student, but of being an educator, because I watched my mom pull together lessons for my brothers and myself every day. As a little bitty kid, I would set up my little stuffed animals and teach them lessons too, because I wanted to be like her.”
