While this is her first year being a teacher at the high school, special education teacher Kelsey Bass can say that teaching in general isn’t her first rodeo. Bass has been part of the HCPS division for a while, five years at Skyline Middle school and last year at Bluestone Elementary School. For a couple years now, Bass has been wanting to switch to the high school setting.

“It was a fascinating experience going from upper middle school to kindergarten through second grade. I love the little guys, but I’m definitely glad to be back in high school. My first teaching job was at Central High School (CHS) up in Woodstock,” Bass said.

Before falling in love with the high school setting, Bass didn’t believe working with older students is what she would be interested in. She majored in exceptional education and disciplinary liberal studies and minored in early education. Minoring in early education is what led her to believe high school teaching wasn’t the school setting goal. Because her first teaching job landed in one, it was easy for Bass to miss working in that setting while she worked with elementary and middle school students.

“I was like, ‘Hey, I really miss working with older students,’ and I applied for a transfer within the division, and I was lucky enough to get it,” Bass said.

Bass’ daily tasks primarily involve co-teaching. She makes sure that the students she assists have access to what’s going on and an extra hand. As of right now, Bass co- teaches English 9, English 10 and an alab class. In the past and still now, Bass works with students of higher needs as a learning resource.

While CHS will always be her first high school home, Bass can say that working in HCPS, particularly at HHS, has given her a new perspective on student bodies compared to other schools.

“One thing that I really like about HHS is the diversity. When I was teaching at Central High School in Woodstock, there wasn’t really a whole lot of diversity, it was just a different population,” Bass said. “I’d just like to build a strong bond with the students here and connect with the students of HHS.”