Every year, students receive their class schedule, often seeing teacher names they had not seen before. Some of those teachers might even be brand new to North.
First year teacher Rebecca Haase joined the English department over the summer and will teach English 3 and English 3 Honors.
While this may be her first year at North, this is not her first year teaching. She taught elementary last year but really wanted to get back to high school.
“I taught high school before and I really missed it, so I really decided that now was my time to get back to high school. I went on a bunch of interviews, but here it just felt like home.”
She plans on staying at Oshkosh North for a while. She’s even looking for houses in the area.
Haase attended UW-Stevens Point but did not start as an English major.
“I changed my major 3 different times. I started out as a history major because I watched the National Treasure movies one-too-many times right out of high school.”
She wanted to be a historian but eventually realized that there were not as many jobs that she thought there were going to be.
She then changed to culinary arts out of her love for cooking. Eventually she landed on English.
“I was in the car one day, and I looked at my mom, and said, ‘I’m gonna be an English teacher.’ And she goes, ‘I was waiting for you to say that.’”
However, she still loves early American History and still finds ways to incorporate it into her teaching. She enjoys making sure she can include all subjects, not just one.
Haase shapes her teaching methods off of her very own high school experience.
“I didn’t have the perfect high school experience, I hated high school. I wanted to make sure that my experience wasn’t someone else’s experience.”
She wants to be a support person for those who don’t have one. Haase wants to be seen as someone who is accepting and appreciative of all differences and all struggles.
Growing up, she had her own struggles and difficulties.
“I was diagnosed with Autism at 15, but before that, I wasn’t a huge communicator. I had a hard time communicating when I was a kid. It was always easier for me to communicate with my hands. My mom learned some basic ASL signs, and I really enjoyed it. I took some classes in high school, and I’ve lost some over the years, but it’s always been easier for me to communicate in multiple ways instead of just verbally.”
Using her passion for literature and her struggles as a student, she hopes to bring every student to success.