Michaela Mailhos knew exactly where she wanted to be – it’s always been the classroom.
She grew up in a family of educators, as her mother was a kindergarten teacher for 33 years and her aunts were teachers as well. Mailhos herself has followed in their footsteps, as she is entering her third year of teaching first grade at New Sarpy Elementary.
Mailhos said that in so many ways, her mother has been a huge inspiration.
“She really instilled that love of education in me,” said Mailhos. “I’ve always been surrounded by my mom’s classes, I’ve been to her classes a million times, and I kind of always knew I wanted to teach the younger grades – kindergarten, first grade. I feel like it’s just such a cool experience to see them make a lot of growth at that age. So, what I’m able to do now, it’s really just perfect for me.”
The first step to facilitating that growth is building a connection with each student.
“You want to make sure they understand, and that their families understand, that I value their growth both inside and outside of the classroom,” Mailhos said. “So, those achievements inside of the classroom are great but you’re also teaching them to be kind to one another and to know that it’s OK to make mistakes. Also, that it’s cool to have fun. You don’t have to worry about what everyone else thinks.
“I love supporting them outside of the classroom as well, going to their games and things like that.”
Another element – being excited about the lesson of the day tends to be infectious.
“I think the more enthusiastic you are, the more enthusiastic they are,” said Mailhos. “I kind of just have fun with it and make everything like a game. I’ll use different voices and things like that just trying to keep them engaged. But it’s leading by example. The more excited I am, the more excited they are. You make everything fun and interesting for them, even if it’s not the most interesting thing in the world.”
New Sarpy, she said, has been an ideal place to begin her teaching career.
“It’s amazing. You always want to have that community and everyone at New Sarpy is a team,” Mailhos said. “We’re all working together, helping each other out, sharing resources. And we’re all very good friends, which helps a lot. It’s an amazing place to work.”
