Ms. Adams: ‘Be forgiving of people’
The Abstract
Here at Explore, Ms. Adams teaches English; she also teaches German, her language elective class. When recalling our interview with Ms. Adams, our experience feels colored in a nostalgic and almost cozy hue. Much of our dialogue gravitated towards recollection, with us fondly reminiscing on the classes we had taken long ago taught by her. Ms. Adams expressed the profound joy it is to connect with students, watching them grow from middle schoolers to high schoolers—and spoke of the privilege of having recurring students in her lengthier elective courses.
There is a warmth that radiates from her very classroom itself. Ms. Adams’ ability to so easily connect with the student body—regardless of them routinely taking her classes or having taken them long ago—is remarkable. What makes her teaching so wonderful is beyond clinical evaluation; it is not a matter, for us at least, of instructional techniques or professional finesse—but of her simply being such a kind teacher. (That is not to say that she is lacking in either educational technique or finesse though—far from it.)
Considering how amicably she conducts her teaching, it is no surprise that she is at the center of many fun activities at Explore. She is the sponsor of the Magic The Gathering club, in which students can bond over the famous card game. And she heads many of the schools’ travel programs to foreign countries. On that note, Adams voiced that tourism is a powerful way to learn about other cultures—but also emphasized that it affords an important opportunity to meditate on one’s own culture too. According to her, it provides twofold understanding, and to quote her exactly—“I think the most essential place [for any traveler to see] is literally anywhere outside of your home country.”
With this, and with personal anecdotes about her own journey to become a more forgiving, compassionate person, and with her friendliness as an interviewee and teacher, we were reminded in our conversation of one important truth: kindness knows no shame. Ms. Adams, it seems, understands that deeply.
The Transcript
Leon: What are some of your favorite novelists and or poets?
Adams: One of my favorite authors of all time is J.R.R. Tolkien*. I really like the Lord of the Rings series. I like all his stuff; I like how detailed it is. I was an assistant to a professor who took me on a trip to England to develop a Tolkien studies abroad program when I was at UNM, which was really cool, so that just kind of solidified my love for Tolkien for me. I could give you a really long list though, but I'll just leave it there.
*John Ronald Ruel Tolkien
L: Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit? I mean, Lord of the Rings is a trilogy, whereas the Hobbit is not, but what’s your favorite?
A: Probably Lord of the Rings. I'm gonna go ahead and just count it—even though it's a trilogy—because he wanted to publish it as one volume, but they couldn't physically, due to the limitations of the time.
Zephyr: Have you always envisioned yourself becoming a teacher?
A: Oh no. No. I didn't realize I wanted to be a teacher until grad school because I started my German studies program—the Masters in German Studies at UNM—and they had me become an instructor for a beginning German class. And I had so much fun doing that, so I was like—oh yeah, I think I would like to be a teacher. Then, I went to Germany for a year and I worked at a school there as an English teacher, and that also helped solidify my trajectory.
L: What is your favorite type of core class to teach—between literature, grammar, and argument—and why?
A: I think argument is the most fun to teach. I like looking at multiple sides to an argument. I also like that there's the research component to it—I think that's probably the most important standard that we teach, finding credible sources and citing them because that will actually really help you in college. Argument takes that, but it makes it more interesting.
L: It's also a pretty important skill nowadays, especially.
A: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Z: Compared to other teachers at explore you have a bit of a unique configuration of classes, being that you teach core classes and an elective German without a major. Do you feel that there's a significant interplay between the teaching styles of both German and English class—or that they’re pretty different?
A: There are some things that overlap but they do feel very different to me. I mean a lot of the basic things of teaching still apply. For example, I try to present material in different formats for students, I try to. I also implement backwards planning, which is when you make the test first and then you construct the class afterwards, so you know what you're teaching towards. Those basic things are the same for both English and German, but otherwise it's very different.
L: On a slightly related note, and we've sort of touched on this already a little bit, but why is it that you chose to study German in particular and have chosen to teach it as well?
A: Oh, my grandmother was German, so I wanted to learn it. I didn't start learning it until I was a sophomore in high school, though, and she died the next year, so I never got to really talk to her in German. But I’m 50% German.
And I really like literature, I love reading. So I double majored in English and German in college and I enjoyed that a lot. At the time, I thought I'd either go into translation or I'd just do something with the English major like become a technical writer. Because you can make a decent living being a technical writer, not so much being a teacher.
L: We're facing the reality right now of trying to become English majors, but also trying to buy food.
A: Oh yeah, it'll work out though. I think it's a really good skill to have to develop critical thinking. And being able to read and write is—I saw something recently that said that half of Americans read at a sixth grade level or below. That's kind of scary. So, it's actually an underrated skill; it's a very highly needed skill.
Z: Considering that you've taught a lot of Kafka classes, was that one of the main authors that (additionally) encouraged you to study German?
A: Yeah, I love his stuff. I read a lot of it in my classes in the German studies program. And then I actually did my thesis on Yoko Tawada—she isn’t German, she’s actually Japanese—but she wrote in German. She was an immigrant to Germany and you can tell she took a lot of inspiration from Kafka. She writes really interesting stuff.
Z: What are your primary hobbies outside of Explore and work in general?
A: I guess reading and writing is obvious; I'm gonna think of something else. I’m a really big video gamer. I have a gaming PC that a friend helped me build and a really big Steam library; I buy games when they're on sale, when they're only like $3. I really like big RPG games. Mr. Ayers will say this too, Dragon Age is awesome. They just came out with Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I'm excited to play that. He's been telling me about it.
I do yoga, too. Oh and I used to do kickboxing but not at the moment; I'm hoping to get back into it, though.
Z: What would you say is your favorite video game company, as well as your favorite platform?
I guess PC is the obvious answer.
A: Yeah, I also really like the Nintendo Switch. I've kind of given up on other consoles though. I used to be a PlayStation girlie, but I could never get the PlayStation 5, and I eventually just didn't want to bother anymore
I don't know if I have a favorite gaming company—I do like a lot of indie games though. I like Stardew Valley a lot; it's a really popular one. They just came out with an update this week; it's been great.
L: What's your favorite musical album? And why is it your favorite?
A: Heathers: The Musical. It's a less well-known one, but it's fun. Or do you mean just like any music?
L: Any music, yes.
A: In that case, Minutes to Midnight by Linkin Park. That was my favorite when I was a teenager, and I still really appreciate it. I think it's exciting they got a new singer, which—that's not my favorite album yet*, but it still feels like Linkin Park, so I like that.
*Vocalist Emily Armstrong joined Linkin Park in September 2024, effectively ending the 7-year hiatus that followed the death of former lead singer Chester Bennington. The album she is referring to—the first one to include Ms. Armstrong—is From Zero.
L: It’s pretty interesting actually because when we ask teachers about their favorite albums, most of them stick to things they listened to as teenagers, and they don’t really change much.
A: I can still always listen to that album. I don't think I'll ever get sick of it.
Z: And in general, are you more of a playlist person or an album person?
A: More of an album person, which I think is a really old person thing to say—part of it is due to the fact I had a car where I played a bunch of CDs as a teenager. I would always just listen to those albums. I also have a record player, so we like to go to used record stores and buy records, and I find that really fun.
Z: What's your most unpopular opinion?
A: First off, oatmeal is actually an awesome breakfast food. It seems to be the less popular option here. That's great--it means more for ME since students here obviously don't have TASTE.
On a more serious note, I think our two-party system is not ideal. (This is a political take I can stand by since George Washington was also against it.) In Germany, they have many smaller parties that typically require them to form coalitions to govern. I strongly believe such a system would be greatly beneficial to our country in that it fosters cooperation between political parties; we would be obligated to find common ground instead of being so strictly polarized.
L: Red or green?
A: Green.
Middle schooler in her class, interjecting: The answer is Christmas!
A: Christmas is also good. I do like both, but if I had to pick one, it's green.
Z: Are there specific cases in which red is better, or do you prefer green across the board?
A: I like red on tamales, but otherwise, I like my burritos smothered in green.
Z: We know you have some pets, particularly cats. For those unfamiliar, could you tell us a bit about your cats.
A: Well, I have a whole zoo now.
Z: Oh, really?
A: It's expanded since I last talked to you guys about it. I have so many animals; I have three birds, three cats, a dog and a lizard. The newest pets that we just got recently are the birds. We got a canary for free because my wife works at PetSmart as an assistant manager. It's basically a special needs bird, and they couldn't sell the canary because it had several surgeries, so they made her adoptable, and we adopted her.
I fell in love with a green cheeked conure. He wasn’t at the PetSmart location, where my wife works, but a different one—we were dropping our dog off to doggie daycare because she's spoiled. And I saw a green cheek conure and I was like—you're so adorable. And then I'm on that side of TikTok where everyone's posting about their little parrots and everything; that's like most of my feed these days. So, we got the green cheek conure and then we got him a little friend. I've got a video of them—they're so cute—I've got a video of them grooming each other*. They're my babies; they're so friendly.
*She showed us said video, and we reacted to it as part of the exchange below.
L: Oh my God, they are very cute.
A: They can learn to talk. The one on the bottom is Mango and he's the friendliest. He'll want to be on you all the time; he wants you to pet him all the time; he'll take naps with you. Not recommended, though, because you might accidentally squish your bird. Then the lighter colored one here is named Piña, like pineapple because that's what they call that coloration on their cheeks. Also, we didn't know that Mango is such a basic name you could come up with for this type of bird; everyone has a bird named Mango apparently; I didn’t know this when I named him.
Piña's a little bit more skittish, but she started to try to groom me a little bit one time, so we're beginning to bond. Yeah and this* is like the first time I caught them grooming each other, so they're starting to bond with each other too. They're super social; they're adorable. I love them.
*Meaning the aforementioned video
And we also got an orange kitten recently. Ms. Stice apparently has a hit list of teachers that she goes around, and gets us to adopt kittens. She told me I was her 11th victim. I mean, that's not how she said it, but that's how I took it. I don't know if she's had more since then. Mr. Gallagher has the brother of the orange kitten I adopted here. I'm like 40% sure those cats have trackers in them or something. Yeah, and it's funny because he named his kitten Cheddar and I thought about naming ours Cheddar, but then my wife was like, “no, Chimichanga,” so that's his name, Chimichanga. He's very cuddly and sweet.
And I think he's gonna be like one of those cats where you're like, oh lawd, he's coming*. He's gonna be one because he's really big now and he's not full grown yet; he’s gonna be chunky. Not that we're gonna overfeed him on purpose.
*This is referencing a particular meme, in which someone remarks on the imposing presence of their sizable cat approaching them.
L: So the whole teaching thing for Dr. Stice is just an operation to offload cats.
A: Oh yeah, actually. She has a thing in the staff lounge that's called The Kitten Corner that's been there for a while now where she posts the new kittens that she's fostering. So you know, that's a valid conspiracy theory.
L: So you've headed quite a few of the educational travel programs at Explore, like the one to Europe next year and Costa Rica. So, among those trips, or perhaps the ones you've undertaken personally, what do you think are the most essential places for any traveler to see?
A: Oh, that's a really hard question. I think the most essential place is literally anywhere outside of your home country. It was really mind opening for me the first time I went out of the U.S., which was to Germany. And the interesting thing about going to another country is learning more about your own country. Like, yes, I learned things about other cultures—but I feel like it really makes you more cognizant of the things we have here, the things that you take for granted because you're just so used to them.
Z: What is most crucial for students to know about transitioning into the adult world?
A: I'm gonna say it's the importance of being forgiving to other people, at least that was the most crucial thing for me. Because adults are living for the first time too, and you want to expect better from them. But they are often as immature as high schoolers most of the time. And you just kind of have to learn to roll with that and be forgiving of people. Otherwise, you'll just be mad all the time, and it's not healthy.
L: That also is probably helped by reading a lot, I imagine. Because reading is an exercise in empathy.
A: Yeah, it does build your empathy to read more; there's been so many studies about that. I'm glad you know about that, actually. That makes me happy.
L: Are there any particularly special moments in which students have taught you something?
A: That’s hard to answer because I feel like that's true every single year--where I feel like I learn a lot from students. I think a lot of kids here are way better than I was at their age. They're more socially aware and know more about what's going on in the world than I did when I was their age.
I think part of that is a shift in our culture too because you guys have more access to being online. I was on social media as a teenager, but not very much. I was on MySpace; I’m dating myself here a little bit. MySpace was mostly just curating your page to look nice and posting what music you were into. So it wasn't quite the same compared to modern platforms.
Yeah, you guys are awesome. I've learned stuff from students all the time.
Z: If you had to say, what are some of your favorite moments as a teacher at Explore Academy?
A: There are so many; there have been so many moments in the German class I teach especially, and it's really nice because I’ve had those same students for so long. It's been wonderful to be able to build those relationships with students and have them over and over again. I've been able to follow certain groups of students from middle school to high school, watching them grow up. So, there are a lot of kids who are in high school right now who I feel I’ve developed a pretty strong relationship with. I know that's not a specific moment, but overall, that's what I would say.
L: That absolutely counts. Yeah, I can see especially how you can build relationships with students through elective classes; it is nice to actually have students for an extended period of time. I still remember the creative writing class I had in seventh grade during COVID.
A: There's a lot I don't remember from COVID, and then, there’s things like that class I do remember—I feel like I remember every single day of that class. I also feel like the Kafka class was one of my favorite classes—I'm glad you were both in it. That one is just about my favorite flavor that I've ever taught, but I couldn't do it this year unfortunately.
Z: The grammar class we had with you—with seven people or so—was also one of the best classes I’ve taken here at Explore. It taught me things that I didn't know at all previously, and after taking it, I realized there’s so many insidious grammatical errors people make all of the time.
A: Yeah, I love the really tiny classes. It's stuff I didn't learn in high school either—I remember we had a conversation about em dashes. I did not learn that in high school. I picked up on it because I read so much, but I didn't know what it was called, and I wasn’t taught about it officially until some point in college.
L: If you were a student here, in what other teacher's class would you like to enroll?
A: Mr. Robinson’s. I need to say that right now because I sat in on one of his classes once just for fun. And he was teaching how to multiply polynomials; he taught it in three different ways. When I was a student, we only learned one method, the one that was the worst approach, in my opinion. He showed two other ways, and I was like, those make so much more sense to me. He says: “Do whichever one makes the most sense to you.” And I was like, could I have been taught this way? It would have made me more open-minded to maybe being a STEM major if I had been shown that there was more than one way to come to an answer like that. Anyway, he's awesome. I also think he's really fun to talk to--so definitely Mr. Robinson.
I love his stories. Anything he says, even if I don't agree with it, I'm like, oh man, I can't wait to hear him talk. He's also a fun person to accost in the staff room. He’s awesome.
