Teacher Feature: Bad influence got Collins to teach
Angie Collins’ main influence to become an educator, oddly enough, was a bad teacher she had in early grammar school.
“I was humiliated by that teacher,” she says, “and I knew then I wanted to become a teacher who would support the students, and help them learn.”
She began college at Motlow and finished up at Austin Peay. She taught French and junior English at the high school for half a year, filling in for someone on leave, then returned to her studies at MTSU, where she became certified for the elementary level in 1997. She is now qualified to teach grades 1-12.
She then returned to the high school, where she teaches history and early childhood careers with children. The latter is a class that gives teen-agers the chance to work with pre-schoolers, gaining actual hands-on teaching experience. Collins says it gives her the chance to work with various age groups.
“I love pre-school age children, but I also enjoy teaching the high school teens,” she says. “I get the best of both ages. I see my history students learning, and I supervise the students teaching the pre-school children. It is the best of both worlds.”
Patti Clark, who also supervises the pre-school program, says, “Angie has a great rapport with students. She interacts with them well and I know she’ll have a great career in teaching.”
Collins says the hardest thing about teaching today is trying to help students deal with problems both inside and outside of the classroom.
“As a young teacher, I sometimes think I’m not trained to deal with the wide variety of problems they face today,” she admits. “Teaching is the most rewarding job you’ll ever have, but also the most physically and mentally exhausting one.
“But seeing the difference you make in the lives of students every day makes it all worthwhile. You may not see that in every student you have, but when you do see that light bulb go off in their heads, you realize just how you impact their lives.”
Angie is married to Darryl Collins, a teacher at Hillsboro Elementary. Together, they coach the Hillsboro fourth- and fifth-grade girls basketball team, which coincidently went undefeated this year.
“It was exciting,” says Angie. “When the girls won the Coffee County championship a few weeks ago.”
She also coaches Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) girls basketball, and loves to read and spend time at the lake.