By Tennyson Anderson-Stricklin

Sarah Selden is one of the new English teachers for the ’22-’23 school year.

Selden got her bachelor’s degree in teaching at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida in 2020. She then taught English in Florida for a year and then for six months in Spain with a Fulbright grant, teaching various bilingual programs there before applying for a teaching job at Heritage, where she graduated in 2015.

She provided a statement on the attractive aspects of Heritage’s culture, saying, “Just being a student at Heritage also made me want to be a teacher because I saw how teachers are super involved here. They really care about their students. There’s just a positive school culture. Then when I left… I realized that that’s just not a given everywhere.”

Ms. Selden went on to add that her English teachers here at Heritage, Mrs. Smith, Ms. Gustafson and Ms. Hurley, inspired her to become a teacher.

“My idea of what I wanted teaching to be like came from being a student here,” Selden stated.

Outside of school, ballet is one of Ms. Selden’s favorite hobbies. She grew up dancing, and in high school, her ballet teacher hired her to teach ballet to children ages three to four. Ms. Selden enjoyed it and has continued to teach younger dancers every summer since she was 15. She still takes ballet classes as an adult. She also enjoys reading, paddleboarding, hiking, and spending time with her friends and family.

Addressing the payoff of her teaching job, Selden said, “I think the most rewarding part is the relationships you can build with students. I find that easier to do in the English classroom because we’re reading books and talking about how they apply to our lives, and then students talk about their lives, and I think that can … open up space for some really meaningful conversations about a lot of things. We all learn something. Even I learn something.”

Ms. Selden can be contacted at the email address sselden@lps.k12.co.us.