Lindsay Maxie, a graduate of Destrehan High School, has been busy at Harry Hurst Middle School.
Maxie, who has taught for five years at Harry Hurst, has created two new clubs at the school in the last two years: Chess Club and the Newspaper Club. And in the last year, she has launched two new enrichment courses: advanced STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) for eighth graders, and journalism for sixth and seventh graders.
Maxie said these clubs and courses give students the opportunity to explore potential career options or to have a place to feel they belong as they share their interests with others.
“The success of these two new courses and extra-curricular opportunities would not have been possible without the support of the Harry Hurst faculty, staff, administration, students, and community,” she said.
Maxie, who taught grammar and writing at St. Christopher School in Metairie for three years before moving to the district, said she always enjoyed writing.
“The subject of journalism interests me because I’m able to share my passion for creativity and writing with students,” she said. “I can recall writing letters, poems and journal entries throughout my childhood and adulthood. Writing always gave me an outlet to process the world and my thoughts.”
Maxie said one of the biggest misconceptions students have about journalism is that they must be good at traditional writing to be a journalist.
“Students think previous grades on multi paragraph literary analysis assignments dictate their abilities to be a successful journalist,” she said. “There are many different styles of writing, and students can be successful in one without having mastery in the other.”
She said a misconception of STEAM courses is that they are only helpful to those going into the engineering field.
“Students are developing critical-thinking skills and evaluating real-world problems that can be applied to any career they choose to pursue,” she said. “In the class, we focus on being solution oriented.”
She said the class gives students the opportunity to learn about topics they would typically not get to explore until high school.
Maxie described her teaching style as project-based and collaborative.
“The way students challenge each other’s thinking and come together to find solutions is remarkable,” she said. “Their uniqueness and creativity are wonderful to observe.”
Maxie, who received her bachelor’s in English and her master’s in teaching from the University of New Orleans, said Ms. Southard, a teacher at Destrehan High School, inspired her to pursue education as a career.
“I remember sitting in her civics class and being in awe of the number of students who were engaged and working in her class, students who didn’t seem to put forth the same effort in other classes,” Maxie said.
She said Southard’s classroom felt safe and respectful of students at a time when she was adjusting to a new school. Maxie started at St. Charles Parish Public Schools as a freshman.
“I did not come into the school with an established group of friends and was going through the process of figuring out where my place would be in a new school, which can be very intimidating in your teenage years,” she said. “I had the opportunity to be enrolled in her student government class and serve on the student council which she moderated, and it positively impacted my life.”
Maxie said her biggest hopes for her own students is that they find something in life they are passionate about and pursue it wholeheartedly.
“I hope for each of them to succeed in life pursuing something that brings them joy and allows them to showcase their gifts and talents to make a positive impact in our world,” she said.
Seeing students accomplish tasks they never thought they could is what motivates her to continue teaching, Maxie said.
“Students enter the classroom with a lot of preconceived ideas about personal and academic skills they cannot accomplish because they think they are incapable,” she said. “Watching students accomplish those tasks and seeing the pride in their faces when they realize they are capable, is the most rewarding part of being an educator.”
