More Than A Teacher

By Sylvie Gumlaw, Winnie Brennan, and Tess Nelson 

So far, Mrs. Cruts has described her experience at Seven Hills as “pretty slick.” She is new to the Seven Hills community, and she teaches Algebra to eighth graders and high schoolers at Seven Hills. 

Mrs. Cruts knew she wanted to be a teacher because she “always liked tutoring and teaching.” Growing up, she always helped her friends with homework. She became a middle and high school teacher because “I always liked high schoolers and middle schoolers, and that was the age group I wanted to teach,” Cruts said. She felt that they needed a good teacher that would make class fun and educational. 

She was initially a part-time teacher for upper school and middle school. She would come in every other day to the school to teach her classes. But then she was offered another course, and now she comes in every day.

Mrs. Cruts is not only a teacher. Outside of school, she plays on volleyball teams known as “Empire Spikes Back” and “Setters of Catan.” She also collects board games with her husband, Brian. Her favorite board game to play is Gloomhaven. 

She has a pizza oven, and one of her favorite things on weekends involves making homemade pizza. Suppose Mrs. Cruts could live anywhere in the world. She would live in Italy with her family to “eat all of the pizza” and “learn from them.”

Her biggest pet peeve inside the classroom is talking while the teacher is talking because it distracts others and herself. But she makes her classroom educational as well as fun. “Mrs. Cruts keeps us engaged because she is funny, and we do activities instead of only notes,” said Julia Lee, an eighth-grade student. 

She also enjoys collecting many things, including; squishmallows and plants, and reading books on her kindle. She has many squishmallows that she is very passionate about. 

You may see her walking around school as a dinosaur or a holiday present, which are only some of the costumes she wears to school during the holidays. Mrs. Cruts gets excited when she sees on the calendar that there is a spirit week coming up because she enjoys finding outfits that connect with the theme.

Many students would agree that “Mrs. Cruts is not only a teacher but also our friend,” said eighth grader Stella Mosby.

School Safety with Mrs. Tucker

By Avery Clayton and Anika Kakar

 “This is just something that I love to do,” Ms Tucker said in an interview about her work at Seven Hills. “I enjoy it because I love kids, and I try to make sure that what I do I try to keep everybody as safe as I possibly can.”

Have you ever seen the Seven Hills school security guard walking around campus? If so, that would be Ms.Tucker! She works hard to keep our school safe and secure, and she loves to help people.

Ms. Tucker, our school security guard, does lots of work around campus. Ms. Tucker talked about what schools can do to become safer/ improve safety. “Be aware, and be aware of your surroundings. Stop thinking it won’t happen. Just think about when it happens, what are you going to do?”

Ms. Tucker says she looks out for many things during the school day. “What I watch for is strangers. Anybody. The strange cars that are coming on campus that shouldn’t be. The cars that are coming in the driveway backwards when it’s a one-way. Kids walking or any strangers, doors being propped open.”

Ms.Tucker also mentioned that if you see anything that you think looks strange, different, harmful, or unusually out of the ordinary, to tell someone immediately. She said how it is better to have the word spread and address the situation, even if nothing is actually wrong.

While Ms. Tucker doesn’t have her own police force here at the school, she has many people around campus helping her out. “There are other people on campus that you probably don’t have a clue that’s watching other than myself. We got the maintenance guys. They’re an additional piece to what I call the security team,” Tucker said. Other officers and campus staff members help Ms. Tucker monitor school safety throughout the day.

 Ms. Tucker also travels to both campuses to ensure school safety throughout all of Seven Hills.

“I don’t just have to do this campus. I have to go to Doherty, too,” Ms.Tucker said.

Before Ms. Tucker was a police officer she worked in Cincinnati Public Schools. “Ten years I worked for Cincinnati public schools. I decided I wanted to go to something else and went to policing.” 

Ms. Tucker has been a police officer for 22 years. Policing is “a dominating male profession,” Tucker said. “It’s not a cake walk if you’re a female and especially if you’re a black female.”

When Ms. Tucker was working as an officer before working here she was a sergeant. “I was a neighborhood sergeant. I worked this area. I know this area a lot. I know where I’m going,” Ms. Tucker said. 

Police school “is a whole year process,” Ms. Tucker said. “You go through the academy for six months, and then after the academy you come out and you have to be trained for the next three months, and then after that you get to ride by yourself for another three months to see if you can even be a police officer.”

Ms. Tucker works hard to help people throughout her workday.

“I didn’t get the job to arrest people. I got the job because I wanted to help people,” Tucker said. “Working around here and working with kids brings me joy.”

“Teachers Have Multiple Hats and Multiple Roles”

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.

A Day in the Kitchen

By Winnie Brennan and Tess Nelson

“You know what Chef means? It means Head Cook, that’s it,” Chef Jimmy said. But the cafeteria members do so much more than only cook.

In the morning, they arrive when it is dark and no one is in the parking lot, usually around 6:45 am. One upside to this is “We get our choice of any [parking] space we want,” Chef John said. 

Once the students arrive, “[they] are always in the cafeteria, from the time they get here in the morning until 3:30,” Chef Jimmy said. 

During the day, they don’t stop. They are always putting out baked goods in the morning, doing dishes, prepping the kitchen, taking orders, or cooking.

 Some of the most popular ordered items in the cafeteria are pizza. “Pizza days are the biggest days,” Chef John said. Other popular items are any pasta, especially mac and cheese, as well as chicken sandwiches, and meatballs. 

“We love getting you what you want and learning what you guys want,” Chef Jimmy said. Seeing students with their friends makes the cafeteria workers’ day. 

Even when they aren’t at school, they enjoy cooking. “As soon as I get home, I start cooking,” Chef Jimmy said. Chef John and Harold do the same. They are cooks. That’s what they do. They also enjoy watching sports and hanging out with their families.

At the end of the day, they wash the dishes, shut the machines down, lock all the doors and check that all the food is arriving the next day. 

Next time you are in the cafeteria make it a goal to thank them for all of their hard work and everything they do.

“Every Year I’m a Different Teacher”

(published on September 28, 2022)

New Seven Hills math teacher expresses his passion for teaching and ties.

“I’ve always enjoyed teaching, and I realize everything I have done in my life always involved math,” Mr. English said in an interview on September 7.

Mr. English is a new mathematics teacher in the Seven Hills Middle School. He currently teaches Algebra and Geometry.

He has been a classroom teacher for 6 years and has previously taught Pre-Algebra. Mr. English taught at Immaculate Heart of Mary for 5 years and McNicholas High School for 3 months as a substitute. “Technically I’ve been a teacher for most of my life in some way, shape, or form,” English said.

Before teaching he was an Optical Engineer for 22 years. An Optical Engineer is someone who uses light in engineering. 

English moved from Tracy, California, to Cincinnati in the spring of 2000. He was born in Virginia and lived in many places like Wisconsin and along the East Coast. He was hired for an optical engineering position here in Cincinnati the same day Ken Griffey Jr. signed with the Reds.

Later in his career, he saw an opening as a substitute teacher at McNicholas High School. Although he didn’t like substitute teaching, he thought it gave him “a great opportunity” to plan lessons and interact with students. 

Mr. English found his career at Seven Hills through LinkedIn. “I don’t wanna say luck, ’cause that’s not really what it is. I’m part of LinkedIn, which is a networking thing for a reason. So things like this happen,” Mr. English said.

Mr. English had mentioned how he loves the middle school community.

“The Seven Hills community is incredibly welcoming,” English said. He likes to bounce his ideas off of other math teachers as well, which he couldn’t do much at his old school because there weren’t many other math teachers.

He spoke about his ways of teaching and how he is learning lots of new things at Seven Hills. “Math is a subject where I think you learn best if you can kinda do a little bit each day,” he said. Mr. English believes it’s okay to make mistakes, but early on in the process so that you can fix them and get the rest of the problem right. 

Mr. English said that he is also still learning about the school iPads, adjusting to 80-minute blocks, and getting to know the teachers and students at Seven Hills. “As a new teacher here…[I work on] how can I get to being an experienced teacher quickly. So I’m going to try a bunch of things,” Mr. English said. He asks students for feedback, and he likes to try new teaching styles.

Mr. English is a very religious man. He made his final decision to be a teacher on January 28, 2017 during a church service. “God said to me, ‘I’ve given you all you need. Now serve me,’’ Mr. English said. 

In the evenings after school, Mr. English grades papers, makes plans for the next day, watches TV, or sometimes goes out for dinner with his wife, Marge. 

Mr. English has many hobbies. On the weekends he enjoys reffing soccer games, playing golf, reading, watching Law & Order, or watching his bird feeder. 

Mr. English also takes pride in his unique teacher ties. It became part of his attire after a friend of his gave him fun ties to wear during the school day. He has superhero ties, math/school ties, a Purdue tie, as well as many others. It’s his thing. 

Mr. English likes to figure out how students learn best. He often reflects on how different things work in the classroom. 

“Every year I’m a different teacher. One of the good things about me… is that I hardly ever do the same thing the same way twice,” Mr. English said. He’s always willing to try new tricks for teaching. “I’m always reinventing and tinkering.”

By: Anika Kakar, Avery Clayton, and Campbell Coyne