By: Campbell Coyne and Ariana Chaudhry

Mrs. Haskins has been the seventh grade Pre-Algebra and Algebra 1A teacher for 23 years at Seven Hills, and she’s not looking to retire any time soon. She found her love for math early on in high school. 

“When I was in high school I was very fortunate to have the same math teacher for three years and I absolutely loved him. I thought he was a phenomenal teacher,” said Haskins. 

In her college years, Mrs. Haskins was required to volunteer for 30 hours to teach underprivileged kids in math and reading. “Obviously, reading was boring to me,” Haskins said, adding to why she chose to teach math. “I found that I was kind of good at helping the kids with math,” Haskins said. 

Mrs. Haskins really enjoyed teaching the kids math rather than teaching reading, so the little time she spent volunteering led her all the way to becoming a wonderful math teacher at Seven Hills.

Although Mrs. Haskins loves teaching math, she also likes doing other things. “In my free time, I’m usually watching my kids play soccer, or I’m running/walking,” Haskins said.

Mrs. Haskins is very active. If she could teach any other subject, she would teach PE. “I always say PE because I’m really athletic and I really get sports,” Haskins said.

She also believes that her job includes more than just teaching math. “I feel like I’m somewhat of a therapist in just talking to kids. Obviously, I’m an educator to educate the children to make sure they’re prepared for the next level. I am also kind of like a friend to my colleagues,” Haskins said.

Mrs. Haskins uses a wide range of teaching styles. “I try to show a variety of ways one can approach something. I try to have patience,” Haskins said. “Teachers have multiple roles and multiple hats.” She tries her hardest to tap into all the different learning styles of her students. “[Students] are always changing and I have to change with [them]!” Haskins said. 

At Seven Hills, Mrs. Haskins feels she can incorporate any teaching style she wants and the administrators will support her. “The administrators do a great job giving me the resources that I need as well as the freedom to teach to my style. They don’t force me to teach to a style,” Haskins said. 

She loves the administrators because they give her the opportunity to better herself as a teacher by giving the freedom to teach in many different ways as well as good resources to execute the knowledge the students need.

Haskins strives to make math fun. She does this by adding creativity to her class such as doing fun facts at the beginning of each lesson. Haskins shares three fun facts with the class. She now has a document with over 300 fun facts on it!

Mrs. Haskins graduated from Milford High School.

“I was a phenomenal athlete, who probably could have been in the Women’s World Cup team. I just chose not to,” Haskins said.

Haskins was an All-American soccer player in high school. An All-American player is when 140 of the best athletes are selected from the entire country. In 1993 she was inducted into the Milford Hall of Fame. The next year she became a Parade All-American, one of the top five defenders in the nation. 

Mrs. Haskins has had multiple jobs prior to her years at Seven Hills. She used to be a retail worker. After that, she became a waitress. She also coached club soccer and taught as a teacher for two years at another school before coming to Seven Hills to teach math.

If Haskins could have any other job, she would want to be in the field of accounting/finance. “I love to budget. I love to crunch numbers. I love to save people money and how can I save a company money,” Haskins said.

Although Mrs. Haskins would enjoy other jobs, she loves her job at Seven Hills the most. Her favorite part of her job is working with the students. 

“[Students] keep me young. My brain is always trying to keep up with the latest thing, the latest trend, the latest lingo,” Haskins said.