“I want to be an astronaut,” or “I want to be a princess,” is generally what you hear when you ask a third grader what they want to be when they grow up – but not Kelly Kennedy. Ever since she was a little girl, her dream was to become a teacher, and this year, as a new freshman English teacher at West Essex, she not only guides freshmen through English but also fosters a safe and supportive environment where they can grow and feel seen.
“I really prioritize relationship building, and I’m really empathetic to my students because they went from being top of their school in 8th grade to the bottom in high school,” Kennedy said. “It’s nice to be the one to catch them again.”
Kennedy has always been a support system for the people around her. Her passion for teaching began from helping her little sister with her homework after school everyday. When her little sister fell behind in school, 7-year-old Kennedy was right there to pick her up, not knowing she would find her passion for helping students along the way.
“Education and being a teacher were something I always wanted to do,” Kennedy said. “I remember in 7th grade, I finally said out loud, ‘I wanna be a teacher when I grow up.’ ”
With a mother who worked as a librarian, she grew up surrounded by books, nurturing her love for reading. But she says it wasn’t until Ms. Kopaz, her third grade teacher, cried in front of the entire class while reading “Stone Fox” and showed her how powerful literature could be when she decided that she wanted to become an English teacher.
“I was like ‘Oh my god, books can do that to you?’ ” Kennedy said. “‘That’s crazy!’”
Kennedy graduated from Rutgers University with a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in Education, and is also certified in special education. For the past five years, Kennedy worked at Morristown Frelinghuysen Middle School as an Language Arts teacher, making it a priority to ensure her students feel safe and secure. Kennedy wants to keep that same goal when helping her upcoming freshmen adjust to their new environment, which can take time.
“They’re coming from being the top of their class to being at the bottom of the totem pole again, in some ways,” Kennedy said. “So I definitely am very empathetic to that experience, as much as I can be.”
While being a mentor for her younger sister, Kennedy learned efficient ways to keep kids engaged in what they are learning. She began using relatable, real-life content to help her students further understand and connect the lesson. She aims to use this dynamic teaching style to get her students to be more assertive and interested in her class.
“I would really like to consider myself personable and relatable as much as possible,” she said. “I really try very desperately, at times, to make the curriculum relevant as much as I can to my students’ lives.”
Kennedy looks back fondly on her years in high school, saying that her English teachers shaped her into the person that she is today. From her own experience, she knows how much a teacher can impact one’s future and perspective on the world around them – and says she’d love to make such an impact.
“I hope that I leave my students with a kind of enduring curiosity and wonderment about the world around them,” Kennedy said, “and I hope that I can give them skills that they feel like they can then go explore those curiosities wherever it may lead.”
