Gallery • 3 Photos

Being a teacher at RB is fun!

RB is a big place.  Almost every year, we get new teachers to fill the spots left by the old ones.  Here is an interview with Danielle Drumm, a new study skills teacher here at RB.

Clarion: Where did you go to high school?

Drumm: I went to high school in West Chicago, which is west of here out by Naperville and Charles area.

Clarion: Where did you go to college?

Drumm: For my undergraduate’s degree I went to Illinois State University, and for my masters, I went to Northern Illinois University.

Clarion: What was your major in college?

Drumm: My undergraduate degree is in history education, and my master’s degree is a learning behavior specialist.

Clarion: When did you realize that you wanted to teach?

Drumm: When I was in high school, I had a history teacher that was really inspiring to me.  My senior year, he encouraged me to take some specialized inquirium classes on Lincoln, and I absolutely love Lincoln, I’m a big history nerd, so I wanted to study history in college.  When I was in high school, I always said that I didn’t want to be a teacher.  Then I got to college, and I really wanted to do history, but I didn’t know what I was going to do with it.  I took a couple classes, and a couple of my teachers encouraged me to do teaching.  That’s what I went into, and I ended up happy that I did.

Clarion: Did your teaching career start at the high school level?

Drumm: It started at the high school level.

Clarion: What made you choose RB as a place to teach at?

Drumm: I just moved to Chicago, and I really loved the district I worked in before, but I needed to find a new job closer to home.  RB had an opening, and I was excited about it, and I’m really happy to be here.

Clarion: What classes do you teach?

Drumm: I teach study skills.

Clarion: What grades do you teach?

Drumm: It’s grades nine through twelve.

Clarion: How is RB going so far?

Drumm: I’m enjoying it here. The staff is really supportive, it’s a great team, it’s a wonderful place to be in.  I enjoy having my students.

Clarion: Any surprises, or anything unexpected being new to the school?

Drumm: One of the biggest complaints I hear that surprised me is parking, because the parking lot is really small.  I’ve heard that student parking is a problem too.

Clarion: What do you find most challenging as a teacher at RB?

Drumm: Nothing really, because everyone is so supportive, and the programs seem really great.

Clarion: What do you find most rewarding?

Drumm: Everyone has a positive attitude, and everyone wants to help students.  Teachers are engaged in finding new methods, and supporting programs, and things like that.

Clarion: If you taught at a different high school previously, what is the biggest adjustment you have to make while teaching at RB?

Drumm: I previously worked at an alternative school, for students who got kicked out of a regular high school, that couldn’t make it in the comprehensive high school.  This is a very different environment.  That environment was much more structured, and students didn’t have a lot of privileges.  I really missed fun things like homecoming, and dances, and all the different activities that students are involved in, like the newspaper.  We didn’t have anything like that there.

Clarion: Could those students participate in sports?

Drumm: They could go back to their regular high school to do sports, but we didn’t have sports.  We had clubs, so I did cooking club with my students, but other than that, we didn’t really have anything.  I love being back in the regular high school setting, and having access to all those fun things.