CATHERINE OHAYON, Math Department
Q: What do you teach?
A: I teach Math four academic and Math two honors
Q: What made you decide to teach math?
A: Originally I went to App State and I majored in Pre-law and I had no intentions of teaching math when I went to college, but I had two friends who were education majors, and they got to student teach and they had a lot of fun activities they were doing with their classes and I was like “that seems like more of what I would enjoy doing” and after I graduated from App State I became a substitute teacher for Wake County and I subbed in so many math classes that the other teachers encouraged me to become a math teacher because of how good I was with the kids and how good I was at math and I taught for my first year at Enloe High School and this is my first year at Wakefield.
Q: What does a typical workday look like for you?
A: I get up and I usually have my lessons uploaded into Canvas so I’ll make an announcement to my first-period kids about what their “asynchronous” activities are for the day. Then I’ll give them the google meet information so kids will come onto our google meet and we’ll talk for the first few minutes just to see how everyone’s doing and once everyone joins within the first five minutes we will get started with class time.
Q: How has virtual learning impacted your job?
A: It’s been very different. I didn’t have many years of teaching under my belt before we started doing virtual learning because I did virtual learning last year which was my first year of teaching. This is my second year of teaching so I’ve only really done virtual teaching so it was an easy process for me to get into and I think we’ve found a good rhythm. I do miss seeing students in person because I feel like we have more fun, more time and I feel like I can get to know them a little better. It’s hard doing some math problems when you’re just doing math virtually compared to being in person and having a big whiteboard, but we’re making it work.
Q: Tell me about your educational background
A: Funny story I am actually a student of Wake County. I went to all Wake County schools for elementary, middle, and high school. I graduated from Panther Creek in 2012 and then I went off to App state. I graduated with a degree in political science with a concentration in Pre-law back in 2016.
Q: What’s your favorite thing about Wakefield so far?
A: Definitely the other teachers, I’ve really enjoyed getting to know my co-workers even if it’s virtually and just having meetings. They are a great group of teachers and I’m really enjoying getting to know them. Even the students, some of them are also having their first year at Wakefield so that’s kind of funny.
Q: What do you like to do in your free time?
A: I really like to watch movies and T.V. shows. Definitely, one of those Netflix and Hulu bingers, and I like going outside. I just had a baby recently, his name is Grayson, and I like to spend a lot of my time with him now because he is a little baby.
Q: What do you want to do for students?
A: I want them to be successful in whatever they choose to do. Everyone has their own path, their own things that they want and my job as a teacher is to help motivate them in that direction. I want to teach you something I think is important for when you leave here and you hopefully will use it in something you will do. Not only with my math we have some fun life lessons and there are things you’re going to learn in my class that you’re gonna use when you leave here. I think that I am genuine with my students and hopefully they are genuine with me back.