Last week I interviewed Mrs. Cain, the new special ED teacher at Lively Middle School. I asked her questions about the education she has received, her history in teaching, and what she likes to do out of school. I’m very interested in what I learned and I’m excited to share it with y’all!
What is your name and position at Lively?
My name is Alice Cain… and I was hired to do special education inclusion in tier 3 classes.
Talk about your Education and what degrees/certification do you have?
Sure, back in California when I was growing up I went to San Jose State University, and I graduated in Performing Arts with the emphasis of Dance, and then I actually planned on pursuing dance as a career but I had a really bad head injury when I was in my last semester of college so that kinda changed the trajectory for my career and I started getting into teaching, and I found that I really love it. And then later I ended up doing the alternative certification route and I got my certifications.
You’re new, what is your history in teaching?
I started with dance at a high school level at Ball High School in Galveston and I ran their dance program, their drill team, and their color guard. I got a lot of experience there. Then I moved to Houston and started pursuing more elementary level so I was doing Physical Education and musical theater with the kids and just really having a great time there and then later I came…here (to Austin) because my daughter was accepted into The University of Texas.
What led you to Lively?
I actually taught for a lot of different schools because I ended up doing like subbing for special ED because I like wanted to get my feet wet to make sure that’s the area I wanted to get into and once my daughter was accepted to UT then I came here to Lively.
What do you like about Lively so far?
Well first of all I feel like Lively is very organized, really good with communication to their teachers and staff and very very supportive … There’s a lot of opportunities for learning and training which I love. I love our principal. I find her to be extremely compassionate. Not only can you tell that she cares about kids but she cares about her staff too… The main thing I would say about Lively that I love is the support and the feeling of like a family and the kids too, of course, I can’t leave y’all out.
What made you decide to be a teacher?
I always wanted to pursue special education because I noticed from dance I had a lot of the kids come to me and I just found a kinda special love for that.
Why do you teach what you teach?
I really want to continue to support…our special ED kiddos, actually all the kiddos up to grade level and beyond.
What inspires you?
Music, music number 1. I would say all kinds of music like for example this morning I’m not feeling very good. I’m having some allergy problems… so I wasn’t feeling quite well and I thought you know what let me listen to some music on the way to work and it really helped. Any kind of music and it gets me going in lots of of ways like it gets me going moving and it also gets me going academically. I might hear something like, for example, right now in doing a unit in poetry if I feel a loss of words I might borrow a lyric from a song that I listen to and then kind of build off that to make a poem so I would say music inspires me.
What is the best/worst thing about being a teacher?
Okay the best thing about being a teacher is you do really feel like you’re contributing. You feel like your helping our future and that is what keeps me going for sure because I feel like I am playing a very important role in helping raising our youth. That’s number 1. Number 2 oh for the worst part about being a teacher I would say the schedule I get tired very easily… I feel like as a teacher especially there’s so much planning involved and stuff. I feel like that one extra day would really be helpful just to play catch up and rest because it can be taxing.
If you could enroll in another teacher’s class what class/ teacher would it be and why?
Mrs. Gang probably because its my passion number one and number two I love her energy I just think she just embodies everything that I love about theater. She is theatrical. She is charismatic. She is beautiful. She is knowledgeable with her craft I can tell and so I would love to just be part of that and be part of one of her productions.
What is your favorite movie?
Oh, probably the lost boys. I don’t know if you ever heard of it back in the day when I was like y’alls age. It’s an independent film about vampires because I love vampires. I know it sounds crazy but I’m really fascinated with that kind of dark twisted stuff.
Do you think Lively is a safe school?
Yes I do because I like how everything is locked. Even our door like the other school I came from didn’t do that. It wasn’t mandatory, only during a lockdown we had to do that so yes I would say I do feel safe here.
What hobbies do you have?
Well dance lately. I’ve been getting into more cultural dance like hispanic dance Salsa Rhumba Tango and those kinds of arts and I’m starting to take lessons actually I found a place here yeah so I would say that’s what I like to do for fun.
What is your favorite book?
Actually there’s a book right now I’m reading that Im really enjoying its part of our English department. Its called Hidden Gems and I just finished chapter two last night matter-of-fact and I love it because as a teacher it’s very encouraging to give us different was to inspire children to write and to basically, like the title says, train us to see the hidden gems within the writing and within students work.
What are your goals with teaching at Lively?
Well my number one goal is to get my tier three class that’s kinda struggling I want to get them up to grade level in terms of reading fluency and writing I really really care about that and then I
also care about my inclusion classes to support Mr. Zimmerman and Mr. Benson… that’s definitely my number one goal, my number two goal is to have fun. I feel like this is a school where I can actually have a little fun.
