What is your name? Where do you teach? Karen Hebert, I teach at St. Paul’s School.

What subject(s) do you teach? English 8 Honors and English 8.

What is your favorite thing about the subject(s) you teach? I have the opportunity to help children enjoy books, reading and writing. The world is full of wonderful stories and we need to see what a great pleasure reading can be.

How long have you been a teacher? Thirty-six years.

How has the profession of teaching changed since you started? Technology has made many differences in the way teachers do things, records, grades and also in the way we get to communicate with the students. Computers and technology in education are wonderful.

Why did you become a teacher? Honestly, it was the only thing I ever wanted to do.

What is your favorite thing about teaching? I never have a dull day. Eighth-grade students always have something interesting to say. They are lively and when motivated to learn they are delightful.

I am always impressed with the work they can do when they are ready to complete a task. Because I do public relations I get to deal with students across the grade levels so there is always something interesting going on.

Do you do anything special in the classroom to get through to your students? I try to make the learning experience fun.

What is the hardest part of your job? Grading papers at night.

Are you involved in any extra curricular activities at the school? I work with the Big Brother Program and the Student Hosts Organization. I also do some of the public relations for the school.

Do you utilize any special technology in the classroom? I use my classroom projector and my computer everyday. I use a document reader in many of my classes.

Have you received any grants to aid you in the classroom? Every year for quite a few years I have written a grant request to the Joe and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Service Learning Foundation. They have been very generous; my students write one theme based alphabet book and one non-fiction book.

They dedicate these books to a first-grade student. Each book has a review quiz, coloring pages and jokes. We travel to Hammond Eastside Primary School twice a year.

We have a shared reading experience, and we bring literary gifts to those kids. The gift bags include crayons, markers, paper, journals, activity books, pens, pencils, glue sticks and anything that they need for school. Watching the kids enjoy reading the books together is a great afternoon.

What do you do during your summer vacations? I usually do some public relations work for the school, so I go to my office about twice a week. I have been asked to chaperone the “College Tour” and that is a week of summer, but that is a great experience for chaperones and students alike. I also try to visit some of my family that lives away.

Do you aspire to become a principal one day? No.

What’s the craziest thing that has ever happened while you were teaching? I was only 20 when I first started teaching and one afternoon during my planning period at my new school I walked down the hall to get water from the fountain and an older teacher came out of his room and fussed at me for being out of class, rather loudly, and I had to explain to him that I was the new English teacher. He and I were both embarrassed.