Ms. Warrix is the newest 8th grade science teacher. She has many fun hobbies including collecting cookie jars & antique animal trinkets. Her students describe her as considerate & work oriented. I got the chance to interview her.
What is your name & position at Lively?
I’m Ms. Warrix… and I’m an 8th grade science teacher here at Lively.
Talk about your education, what degrees or certifications do you hold?
I graduated from Texas state, go bobcats! I have a degree in biology and then a separate one in secondary education. I’m licensed for life science specifically, but in middle school it’s kind of all of
them, seventh grade through twelfth grade.
What’s your history in teaching?
I taught in Kyle, Texas for a little bit. I taught seventh grade, and I wanted to move to Austin. I wanted a change, and Lively sounded like a great place.
What led you to Lively?
Really just the culture and the people. All the teachers seemed really excited to be here and do their jobs. Some places everyone’s like, where a school is whatever. But Lively seemed like a really exciting place. The students loved it here, the teachers loved it here. I wanted that energy.
What do you love about Lively so far?
Really I do love the students, y’all are all amazing, I’ve had a great time. You really impressed me, like students have been so creative. They’ve been so like, ahead, they’ve been very excited about
working. With 8th grade, middle school you don’t always get that excitement. I really appreciate that, and I have really appreciated the people. It’s a fun place to be. The admin are great, the staff are great, it’s been a really fun place to be so far.
What made you decide to be a teacher?
So, ok, this is kind of a weird one for me because I wasn’t one of those kids that had my dolls lined up for teaching. I actually got into teaching cause I worked at a bug zoo. So we took care of 40 some types of bugs, and we took them to schools or elementary schools. Cub scout kind of things, and then we’d talk to kids about bugs. They could like hold them, we’d talk about bugs, and I just realized how much I liked connecting with kids about science and explaining that, and really helping them understand, how the world works.
Why do you teach science?
I love science, I am not a generalist. Some people…can do anything in four through eighth. I’m just a science person. I’ve always loved science, I think that it’s really interesting. I think understanding how the world works is such an important thing. And it’s something that you can kind of easily just, avoid, by accident, if that makes sense. Like you can just not learn something, but to me science is about understanding how the world works, why it works that way, how and we can change it. But I find science so fascinating, it’s one of my favorite things ever.
What inspires you?
What inspires me? Definitely the other teachers around here. I’m newer in my teaching career than some other people. For example, Ms. Twining has been here for a very long time. So I find a lot of inspiration in teachers who have been here, they still come to work every day excited, they’re having a great time. I also find a lot of inspiration in students, y’all bring different energies and different class periods have different interests. There are things that I’m like, oh, I know my fourth period is gonna love this. I like taking that inspiration, taking all that and making fun lessons.
