by Antonia Mazzilli
For this issue of the Harwood Underground I thought I would interview Mrs. Ibson. Mrs. Ibson is an 8th grade social studies teacher and she coaches girls lacrosse. She has been teaching at Harwood for seventeen years.
I asked her the first question which was “What is your favorite part about teaching at HUMS?”
She said that her favorite part about teaching at HUMs is her students and colleagues “both are amazing and have kept me at HUMS for so long.”
Obviously there are many traditions at HUMs and when asked which one is her favorite she says “I love the tradition of the 8th grade dinner dance. Because we don't have a formal graduation, the dinner dance is a celebration of finishing middle school and moving on to high school.”
There are so many amazing places in this world but Mrs. Ibson would choose to go to Italy if she had the chance.
“I live in this community and feel committed to making the school the best that it can be for my kids and our larger community,” she says when she is asked why she chooses to teach at Harwood.
When asked what she is proud of she says that she is proud of the way she takes on challenges both “personally and professionally - and do my best to overcome or push through them.”
Most everyone attended school when they were younger and we all had a favorite subject “my favorite subjects were history and photography.” says Mrs. Ibson, she decided to teach because of the the fact that she “loved history classes in high school and did not have a clear vision for what [she] wanted to major in. [She] also knew that [she] loved working with youth.”
“I am passionate about teaching a more balanced history of the United States,” she states when asked what she is passionate about.
As said above she coaches the girls lacrosse team and she says that “I started coaching lacrosse because when I moved to the Valley there was no middle school girls program. I helped to start that in the Valley and then when my daughter was old enough to start playing I began coaching her team starting when she was in 3rd grade.” Everyone has a favorite part about anything and when asked she says that “My favorite part of coaching lacrosse is getting players hooked on the game. It is so fun to play and girls lacrosse is still growing in this area, so not as many girls play compared to soccer. I want girls to have as many opportunities as they can to play a team sport, feel supported by their team, and have fun.”