New Biology teacher Ms. Jamie Richards had taught classes before, but on her first day at Triton High School, she said she was terrified.

“You have all eyes on you, waiting for you to tell them what to do,” said Richards.

Richards was a student at Triton, and is also a college graduate. She majored in biology, giving her a few options for a science career. She originally went into genetics and worked in a genetics lab, but she hated it there and described it as, “you were isolated all day.” She really wanted to go into a profession that would help people, and thought teaching was a good way to do that, especially because her high school teachers had said she had a ¨knack¨ for teaching. She now teaches three different levels of biology at Triton, college prep (CP), honors, and advanced placement (AP).

Richards got through that first day and has been at Triton for a little over a month now. She explained that her absolute favorite thing about being a teacher is seeing when something really clicks in a student, when they really understand what a teacher is teaching them. She has always had a love for science and English, and had to choose which subject she wanted to pursue and teach. She chose science because, “there is always something more to learn,” said Richards. Because there are always more thing to learn,, she chose to teach science rather than English, because she explained that there is only so far one can go in that subject, but with science, the case is different.

“She seemed so excited to teach us about AP biology and really knew a lot about the subject,” said junior, Bella Lesinski, a student of Richards’s.

Her love for science shows in her classes, and she always makes sure her kids get the most out of each class that they can. A typical class for AP biology consists of going over homework, doing a powerpoint on the chapter, and time at the end of the class for any questions, said Lesinski.

Not only the students see the good qualities in Richards, her high school teachers did as well.

“She always had like a fierceness to her,” said her former English teacher, Mrs. Melissa Davis.

Richards was always the top 10 in her graduating high school class, and she attended an honors banquet where Davis spoke for her. “I was so proud of her for making it there,” said Davis. “She was born to teach, she has a teacher’s soul.”