By Diya Dave
As soon as you walk into room 3045, you will see Keela Parsons, a science teacher at Rocky Hill High School.
Parsons’ favorite subject is science. She loves the ocean, exploring, and is always curious about why stuff happens. However, this was not always what she thought she would do.
Instead of being a teacher, she thought she would work at an aquarium, for she was so passionate about marine biology. Parsons couldn’t even imagine she would become a teacher until her high school health teacher told her. With that thought, she ran an after-school program for science before finally deciding to become a teacher her senior year of college.
Parsons always thought science was cooler than other subjects because it’s more interactive. She says even though it’s more work, tweaking experiments and arranging the materials, “It’s worth it.”
“Younger kids were not my favorite. They’re really fun but they’re really chaotic, and you cannot logic with them.” she said. In college and grad school, she worked for a schooner, which required a lot of biology teaching. Parsons designed an after school program and did many activities with younger kids. That’s where she made the decision to teach older kids.
After she decided to teach more mature kids, she did a grad-internship at Tolland High School. “There is something about high school I just love and honestly part of it’s the content. I love getting deeper into the content.” she said.
From then on, she has been working in the Rocky Hill district for the past seven years. She started off as a science tutor and then joined us as a teacher.
When Parsons became a teacher, she realized she loved to teach because everyday was slightly different and she was able to build relationships with her students. When a student gets something they didn’t get before, it shows how much hard work they have done to understand it, and that makes her so happy to see kids understand things. “It’s definitely never boring,” she says.
“I love to explore and I want to know why,” Parsons says. This also explains why she adores problem solving. Science is so fascinating to her because there is a new angle in understanding the topics, and there is a lot of room for curiosity and question-asking.
Some of her favorite labs and experiments include a chain reaction machine, where her students created a chain reaction machine with 20-24 elements and the whole experiment looped around her room including dominoes, waterslides, and “a zipline at one point.”
One course Parsons would love to have in the curriculum is marine biology. She has always loved the ocean and is so eager to teach her kids about how interesting the study of marine organisms can be.
If Parsons had the option, she would take her students to Bermuda for a field trip. It could be very educational and informative. She says, “there’s basically tropical areas that you can travel to some of the research stations, and help out with some of their research”
Parsons loves teaching people about her favorite subject. Although Parson’s is far from where she thought she’d end up in becoming a teacher, she wouldn’t want to be anything else. As she mentions, “Teaching can be really hard but it’s really, really worth it.”