Sydney Curry

Posed photo of Stroudsburg Junior High teacher Ms. Trebour with her students.

At which school in the district do you teach?

I teach at the Junior High School. 

What subject(s) do you teach?

Language Arts

What grade(s) do you teach?

8th Grade 

How long have you been teaching at SASD?

This will be my second year teaching at the district. 

What is your favorite part about teaching? 

I really like building connections with students. Being able to see them grow and achieve their goals in or outside of the classroom is awesome. 

If you could teach another subject what would it be and why?

I think I would be a music teacher, I grew up very interested in music and theater which actually inspired me to teach English (for works written by Shakespeare). 

If you had gone into another profession, what would it be and why?

As a child, I really wanted to be involved in the theater community in some way; writing, directing, and acting. Now, I feel like I would go into publishing since I have always been very interested in the process of publishing a book. 

What is one piece of advice you would share with your students?

Start each day anew. Don’t drag baggage or stress from one day into the next cause that will just guarantee you will have another bad day. Just try to put it aside and move on the best you can.

If you could have one superpower what would it be and why?

Obviously teleportation, I love traveling and it would be so time-saving to just beam myself somewhere else. 

How and when did you know teaching was what you wanted to do?

I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I got into high school. I was always surrounded by super influential teachers. I also loved reading books but did not quite want to be a writer.

Similarly, I loved performing but did not want to spend money on a college degree in theater (no offense to anyone who does). I felt like teaching combined the two. I get to talk about my favorite books while ‘performing’ in front of students. 

“The best of both worlds” -Hannah Montana 

What is a joke you always keep in your pocket?

I think my form of humor is more in sarcastic comments or puns. 

Who do you look up to?

Taylor Swift is an icon. 

What will your life look like after you retire?

My retirement dream plan is to get certified to be a yoga teacher, so I could just teach random yoga classes while traveling around the world. 

What is your favorite memory of teaching?

Even though I am only in my first couple years of teaching, some of my best memories of teaching are using paper swords to have sword fights with students for reading Romeo and Juliet or making friendship bracelets for Taylor Swift’s The Era’s Tour with my study hall students. 

What is something that most people may not know about you?

When I was a kid, I almost always had a broken bone. I believe I have broken a total of 12 different bones in some way all throughout my childhood. 

What is a hidden talent of yours?

I can do the splits (after 6 years and counting of doing yoga daily). I can also play the guitar.

What is one thing you wish people knew about teaching/teachers in general?

How much work we put in. In my first year I was constantly stressed, wondering why I signed up for a job where it felt like not many students respected me.

On top of that, you have the ever-growing pile of grades, and paperwork, figuring out what you are going to teach and how, and then also creating materials for lessons.

Not to mention that it is typically more work to take a sick day than it is worth. Not many people realize exactly what goes into it for very little reward. Even at home, I think about how I will teach this and the emails I will have to reply to tomorrow.

Yes, these things all get better with time and practice but it can be a very overwhelming and overstimulating job to do daily. So please, show your teachers some forgiveness, kindness, respect, and appreciation. I promise you that you will put a smile on their faces. 

What makes you smile?

Anytime someone compliments my outfits will always make my day no matter what. Even seeing old students and chatting with them about how life is going makes my day. 

When you retire one day, what will you miss most about teaching?

While teaching can be overwhelming, I could not think of another career like it. You get to touch the lives of so many people, some of whom will always remember you or your class.

You get to see that you are making a difference in the lives of others and that is probably the most rewarding part about being a teacher. 

What is something your students have taught you?

Oftentimes, it is a student who reminds me that I can not take things too personally. We all have bad days that make us snap at people, get angry, or be annoyed.

It is the students who are real with me and admit that they are having a bad day or that they are super overwhelmed that reminds me it is okay to be a human.