In her classroom, Peet teacher draws from adversity to build possibilities

An unsupportive math teacher at Hudson High School once told world studies teacher Shantel Grothoff, “You either get it or you don’t.” Years later, that exact negative experience directly shaped her compassionate teaching style.

Grothoff always loved school; however, having an unsupportive educator made it hard to still enjoy that class. Grothoff’s sister always excelled at math, while she struggled the most with this subject. The math educator had an inflexible mindset when it came to teaching. “You either get it or you don’t.” This really discouraged Grothoff when she tried to get the extra help she needed.

She said that that educator taught her two valuable lessons.

“The first is that while one instructional strategy might work for some students, that doesn’t mean it is going to work for every student. This is why it’s important to me to mix up the structure and activities we complete in class. The other valuable lesson is that siblings are their own, unique selves and should be acknowledged as such. If my high school math teacher would have understood that, he might have made math more approachable for me. And, I definitely would not have felt less than my sister.”