According to Fegely Middle School teacher Carrie Kietzman, teaching middle school math seems like her life calling. However, it took a while for this Hobart native to learn that.
Although “teacher” would always come up on Kietzman’s high school job assessment tests, she went a different route -- the business marketing route. While she had a lot of success in the field, it still wasn’t exactly what Kietzman was wanting out of life.
Her journey to find the missing spark in her life even took Kietzman to California, where she took up surfing. It wasn’t until a friend suggested teaching to Kietzman, since she was already training people on the job, did she really consider it.
One accelerated Transition to Teaching program at Calumet College of St. Joseph later, and the middle school math teacher was born.
Kietzman focuses on teaching inquiry-based math, which focuses on the students' role in the learning process.
“I want the kids to ask those questions and take those risks. I want them to feel confident, a lot of them come in thinking they are bad at math,” Kietzman said.
Math can be a tough subject for students to grasp. Many students end up feeling intimidated by it, and ultimately feel discouraged from really trying. For Kietzman however, any student could be a math person.
“Everybody could be math smart, [it’s about] how deep are you thinking about the problem,” Kietzman said.
Making the transition from the business world to the teaching world can be a bit of a challenge. Kietzman credits the teachers at Fegely Middle School with helping her feel right at home. She stresses the importance of sticking together, especially during tough times.
“Working with my sixth grade teachers is amazing, we support one another, [we] create happiness each and every day, it’s like a second family,” said Kietzman.
On top of finding her passion for teaching, Kietzman also found a way to combine it with her other passion in life: music.
“Everybody who knows me knows I love music. I play guitar, I go to music concerts, and I just picked up ukulele just to annoy my students.”
On some days, Kietzman brings her guitar to work, and hums or sings math songs while she plays. She just recently made a song to help teach the children about mean, median, and mode, set to the tune of the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle.”
“The students act embarrassed or not interested at first, but then I see they're applying it,” Kietzman said.
According to the end of the year survey Kietzman conducts, the question “Do you like when Mrs. K. sings in class?” receives an overwhelmingly positive response.
When she’s not teaching or playing music, Kietzman spends her time with her four children.
On her journey to figuring out her career, Kietzman has seemed to figure out one of life’s bigger lessons: finding a muse or inspiration and just running with it.
“Once you figure out what your passion is, you're good to go,” Kietzman said.