For Ms. Michelle Risse, the idea of working as an HL IB English teacher at Meridian is nothing new. In fact, becoming an English teacher has always been her lifelong dream since being inspired by her own 11th grade HL English teacher when she attended high school.
Risse grew up in a military family and moved around a lot before her father was stationed at the Pentagon when she was in middle school. This allowed her to complete her middle school and high school education in northern Virginia in Fairfax County.
When Risse entered her junior year of high school she took honors level English which was being taught by Fairfax County school teacher, Ms. File. This teacher had an insurmountable impact on her and her thoughts on English and literature as a whole. She was in awe of File’s knowledge of English literature and the way she taught the material in her class.
“She was my biggest inspiration. Her class was hard. It was the hardest English class I had ever taken, but I learned so much. I had areas to grow and improve, and I made so many strides in those classes, in her class in particular,” she said.
When completing her Internal Assessment for the class, she got a 98, making her realize how much progress she had made in the class.
After completing Files’ English class, Risse felt like she had learned and grown tremendously as an English student. Leaving with a strong connection to English, she carries Files’ teachings with her in her own classroom by promoting a similar curriculum.
“I just grew so much and learned so much from her, and she made me fall in love with literature,” she said.
After completing high school, Risse attended James Madison University for both her undergraduate and graduate degree. When choosing a major, she initially focused on teaching elementary aged students, but soon realized her true passion was teaching High School students, while always focusing on the subject of English and the humanities.
After graduating, Risse became a teacher at Fairfax County high school, where she had numerous different teaching jobs that allowed her to experience all different grade levels.
“I taught all the grade levels in high school. I taught literary courses, I taught HL Courses, Co-taught courses, Journalism courses, and then after 9 years I moved over and got the job here at Meridian,” she said.
After working at Fairfax County high school for 9 years, she got her job teaching HL English at Meridian, the same class that Ms. File had taught Risse years ago. Risse stated how she felt particularly connected to the class because of her experience in Ms. Files class, saying “I would pin all this back to Ms. Files class.”
Ms. Risse’s journey in her career from being a high school student inspired by her HL English teacher Ms. File, to carrying on these teachings and becoming a teacher at Meridian, shows the importance of being a teacher and the profound impact educators can have on students.
