By Brittany Segill
Mrs. Starr is a dedicated teacher who has always been inspired to teach like her mom. She is known for being the teacher with a rug in her room and advising the sign language club. Besides that, not too much is commonly known about Mrs. Starr.
Mrs. Starr is always a kind teacher and never known to be strict or mean in anyway. Even her motivation to be a teacher is kind at heart. “I get joy from it,” she shares.
Her passion to be a teacher started when she was a teenager because her mom worked at a private school in Florida. A lot of days, they still had school when she had it off so she would go to help out.
“I would get to go in, visit, and be a helper to these five year olds…and I loved it.”
She talks so highly and passionately about teaching that there is curiosity around whether she ever wanted to do something else besides teaching. To some surprise, she explained how she used to have a brief ambition for advertisement. She helped come up with a few slogans for her family, and for a little while she did voice-over work for commercials and helped with a jingle for the Brockton Rox in which they won a contest. She worked with the Brockton Rox and helped with slogans and sayings for all sorts of merchandise. She says, “I dabbled in that and always thought it would be so cool but I would want to do it with teaching. I would never want to leave teaching.”
She felt that her best work could be done as an academic support teacher and that it offered the most opportunity for individual work with students where she could provide the most help. She hopes to inspire her students and give them the best type of learning experience.
“It’s definitely the joy of learning and finding that joy on your own and taking off with it.”
Mrs. Starr isn’t just a teacher, she is also the adviser for the Sign Language club. It was started five years ago by two interested students who asked her to be the adviser; she said yes because of her interest and her familiarity with ASL, sharing that she “worked in a high school as an interpreter [for sign language].”
Next up, I asked her…Why Easton? She has lived all over Massachusetts and even Texas for a time but Easton is where she always wanted to be and has been here teaching for 12 years. She loves Easton and the community both within and out of school. “There’s a great community in these walls of OA… I felt the vibe.”
Mrs. Starr has accomplished many goals in her life and still has some goals to achieve. One of her main goals is to write a children’s book — she talked about how she has always wanted to write one but never had gotten the time to really create it.
“I’ve had it in my head for so long… There are a few different (topics)…One happens to be about a cat and the other one happens to be a Mary Poppins-like theme about visiting places all over the world.”
On the topic of traveling, I wondered if she would ever want to live somewhere else if given the opportunity. Mrs. Starr explained how Carmel, California is a place she wouldn’t mind living. It’s peaceful, right on the ocean, and near the city. She loves the all-around beauty of it but admits she would still always gravitate back to Massachusetts.
Mrs. Starr has a passion for teaching and it drives her to be the best she can be. Never once has she regretted her choices in life that have led her to where she is now. Someone with such passion usually has a motto to keep themselves going and Mrs. Starr is no different.
“Just enjoy, that’s all. My mom would always say that. Oh, and be happy.”