This year Greta Leader is joining the Hinsdale Central staff as a brand new AP European History teacher. She is a fourth year, third-generation teacher, who started at Central, left, and is now coming back.
Q: Have you taught before, and if you have, where?
A: This is my fourth year teaching. I taught my first year out of college here. There was a one-year leave of absence job that was posted, so my first job was here and then the grant money ran out for it, so that job was over. I ended up going to Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park; I was there for two years, and then [John] Naisbitt announced that he was retiring, so I applied the weekend he announced, and then for the next two weeks, I was interviewing, and I got the job offer on the last day of school. So now I’m back for year four.
Q: What are you looking forward to teaching?
A: AP Euro [European History]; AP Euro was my favorite class in high school; it’s always been my favorite subject. So when I got the chance to teach it at Sandberg, I was so excited I could do it at such a young age, so now getting to come here and do it, I’m really excited to improve as a Euro teacher.
Q: Do you have a favorite teaching strategy, if so, what is it?
A: I really like to put my students in cohorts, so they make their own [cohorts] at the start of each year, and those are kind of like their little families in the class. And then if I need to do some quick group work, they just work in their cohorts.
Q: What about this grade is exciting to teach?
A: I’m excited for how eager the sophomores are. They’re not too old, they don’t have senioritis and they’re not quite in the junior testing and stressed out stage. They’re open to learning and have good energy, and I’m very thankful for that.
Q: How was your college experience?
A: I went to [University of] Michigan, and my college experience was really great freshman and sophomore year. Then COVID-19 hit my junior and senior year, so I got sent home in the spring of my junior year, and my senior year was totally remote. There were no football games; my graduation wasn’t even in person. I couldn’t teach students in person, so the college experience was great right up until COVID.
Q: What brought you to teaching?
A: My mom is a teacher. My mom teaches APUSH [AP United States History] at LT [Lyons Township High School], and she taught while I went to school there. And before my mom, my grandma taught biology at LT, so I’m a third generation teacher, so I feel like I always wanted to be a teacher because that’s all I knew. But then as I got older I realized that this actually is something that I’m interested in for myself, not just because my mom is doing it, and I really love history, so I’m excited to talk to people all day about history.
Q: What drew you to teaching history?
A: The story I always tell is, when I was in first grade my mom, who teaches history, took my brother, my dad and I on a road trip to Springfield, and we went to the Lincoln Museum. I wanted a doll from the museum, and she said “you have too many dolls, I’ll buy you this book instead.” It was a picture book about the first ladies, and I memorized it, and I didn’t care about history before that. But I drew pictures of them, and I memorized all the fun facts. Since then, I have just been obsessed with history.
Q: Are there any fun facts you want people to know?
A: I was a dancer for 20 years; in college I was a tapper specifically, so I still tap sometimes. I’m also a graduate student right now. I’m going for my masters in history.
