HAILEY HARRISON-JONES, Math Department

Q: What do you teach here at Wakefield?

A: I teach Math I and Foundations of Math I.

Q: What made you want to teach math?

A: I love math! I had a really amazing eighth-grade algebra teacher. Her name was Ms. Carter and she was super nice. I always knew I wanted to become a teacher, but I didn’t know I wanted to teach math until I was in her class. I wanted to be able to give [kindness and motivation] to my students.

Q: How many years have you been teaching?

A: This is my seventh year of teaching.

Q: Where else have you taught?

A: I started teaching in Wilson County where I taught seventh-grade math for one year and eighth-grade math and math I for two years, then I moved to East Wake Middle School where I taught for three years. So this is my first year in high school!

Q: Now that we’re doing virtual school, what does your typical workday look like?

A: It’s busy. I spend a lot of time sending emails. I spend a lot of time trying to improve communication with students and parents. Changing lesson plans to virtual lesson plans has been kind of difficult. So I spend a lot of time researching best practices around that. My days have really extended. 

Q: Do you think virtual learning has impacted students for the better or for the worse?

A: I think it really depends on their situation. I know kids who really like virtual learning because they’re able to pace themselves and they feel more comfortable asking questions. On the other hand, kids who have trouble with organization or who feel better when there’s a teacher always available to them are really struggling because they don’t have that support that they have in the classroom. 

Q: What is your craziest teaching story?

A: East Wake was out in the country. All of a sudden my class got super excited and rushed towards the windows of the classroom and outside was a family of ducks just walking around. They were really cute so we paused class to watch the ducks for a little bit.