Mrs. Richards

April 9, 2019

This weeks Humans of Sartell teachers, Mrs. Richards and Mr.Nordhues

The next stop was the choir room where we sat down with Mrs.Richards the choir director. Mrs.Richards is one of the many new teachers that was hired within the last two years. Before working at Sartell she worked in Redwood Falls, MN for five years teaching 5-12 grade choir, along with teaching in Arizona for two years.

One trend that she wished would come back during her high school years is flared jeans and hip huggers. Everyone has some type of weird talent and Richards weird talent is, “I can whistle really weird.” Unfortunately, we were unable to get a video of her talent.

Mrs. Richard’s has many out of school hobbies: “ I love to play video games and just games in general… The game that got her hooked was Skyrim.” Being a choir director, but also a gamer takes it to a whole different level, but it doesn’t stop there. Richards also loves to paint for fun and also creates her own earrings! “I’m learning how to make feather earrings now.”

Every person has a pet peeve but when it comes to students Mrs.Richards pet peeve is, “ When I give class time to do something but it ends up being late or not finished… or when I have to repeat myself over and over again.

Richards’ first year of teaching had their hiccups but in general, it went fairly well, “It was a whirlwind.”

She also said, “I wanted to look older than 22 so I cut my hair fairly short.”

Richards later added, “Your first year of teaching is all about yourself, ‘like I’m just trying to survive and figure out what things are’… College teaches you the content but not the communication skills, parent emails and small this & that things.”

When Richards was student teaching in all ninth-grade school she realized that, “I loved ninth grade… I think that’s when I realized I like ninth grade, we seemed to click.”

Mrs. Richards idea of retirement consists of, “Ah! I have no idea…I haven’t even started my life yet.”

The following day Mr.Nordhues sat down by the piano after a long day of school/teaching. He has been working at Sartell High School for awhile now: “This is the 8th year that I have been here, I worked at Foley church for a year along with the Saint John’s Boys Choir.”

Some hobbies Nordhues has out of school consists of “traveling, trying new foods, playing volleyball, softball, and hanging out with friends.” He also has done some pretty cool paintings as well. After a few seconds, he added, “I love biking… not motorcycle biking just riding a bike.”

Nordhues’ weird talent consists of, “I guess one weird talent was playing the organ… one of my side jobs in high school was playing the organ for weddings.” Nordhues was unsure of what trend he would like to come back but after a few moments he responded,

After a few laughs, Nordhues shared his pet peeve about students like every other teacher which is was having to repeat himself multiple times in a row. Nordhues’s first year of teaching was stressful, “ I remember walking out of class a number of times because they were so mean, those ninth-grade girls, I was so scared of teaching them everyday… But in general it was fun but it took time to connect with them.” He loved his student teaching experience because the teacher he shadowed also worked in the elementary school so he got to work with K-12.

Lastly, Nordhues’ retirement plans consist of, “ I probably would be involved in music stuff, I would like to think that I will be a better solo ensemble judge.. I would like to also be traveling and do music workshops… Oh, and read, I love reading.”