About Ms. Rogers

What did you do before you came to Combs High School?

I graduated salutatorian from Queen Creek High School in 2002 and attended the Honors College at the University of Arizona. I received my B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Chemistry in 2006. I completed a one year master's program at the University of Arizona called Teach for Tucson that gave me the opportunity to simultaneously earn my M.Ed. while student teaching for two full semesters. I student taught chemistry at Mountain View High School in Marana and then assumed the position of my mentor teacher at MVHS. I stayed at MVHS for two years where I taught 9-12 graders Integrated Science, Chemistry, Honors Chemistry and AP Chemistry. I moved back to the Phoenix metro area in July of 2009 and am now teaching in my old home town two miles from my parents.

Why did you become a science teacher?

I became a science teacher because it was what was right for me at the time I
graduated from college. My love of learning lead me down many different paths
during my undergraduate program at the University of Arizona and it gave me the opportunity to pursue a Masters in Education that I would not have had otherwise. While all of my high school teachers professed I would become an English teacher, I am glad that I now get to teach English in the content area.

What do you like most about teaching science?

It is hard to narrow down just one thing I like most about teaching
science, but one of the top is hearing students complain that they're in science class and not math or English class. I love opening students' eyes to the scientific process and how it simply provides a lens through which they apply the other disciplines.

What are some challenges you are facing as a new science teacher?

While this is my third year teaching, the main challenge I face continually as a new science teacher is deepening and broadening my own understanding of the science content I am teaching as I teach it in order to make the activities during class more enriching. The saying that you don't truly understand something until you have to teach it to another could never be truer for all new teachers. Teaching makes you step back and examine why you know what you do, how you came to know it, and how to impart that knowledge to others who have not had the same experiences as yourself.

What is the one thing you would like us to know about you?

The most important influence in my life was my grandfather, Pat Curtis,
who was a high school physics and chemistry teacher in Scottsdale, Arizona for over 35 years. He instilled in me a passion for exploring, questioning and learning from the world around me when I was a child. Through me he is now reaching another life long career worth of children and passing on his love of science.