It is clear that Erin Mendt has made a profound impact on other teachers: Joanna Komitor, a fellow history teacher, shares, “I think maybe because we have a similar sense of humor and a similar passion for wanting students to succeed, we believe that all kids; students can be successful, ”
Erin Mendt truly displays her faith in her students and belief that people can make it to the top through her patience towards her students. She does all this while working hard to take care of her new kid, and she still excels at teaching her students.
Mendt showcases her devotion towards her child, sharing how she always is “just taking her to new things, new adventures.”
Managing one’s home life, as well as grading school work and staying on top of it, is difficult for most. Add a child to the mix and the difficulty only increases. However, Mendt excels at staying on top of her work-life while at the same time making sure her kid is still going out and getting the full adventures of the outside world.
In terms of Mendt’s long-term goals for Arvada West High School, she is “hoping to be at Arvada West for quite a while.” She adds, “I really enjoy it here and I like the community, I like the students. It’s been a really good move for me.”
It is evident that Mendt cares deeply about the A-West High School community. One way Mendt shows her love for the school is through teaching every student Mendt gets in her classroom equally while giving them all an opportunity to be successful.
Mendt also prides herself on being a kind and supportive person to her students. She is always there through tough times for her students, and she makes sure to keep a good work ethic, trying her hardest to keep up with her students’ needs and making sure they are doing their best work.
Mendt has shown not only to her coworkers but to her students as well as how passionate she is about teaching. This is evident through the praise of Komitor, who shares how Mendt is one of her best recommendations and hires for A-West. “Students don’t care what you know, until they know that you care.” And Mrs Mendt defiantly embodies that by caring about all her students on an individual level to be successful.”
Mendt still faces plenty of challenges; she is still struggling with having such a short-term maternity leave, especially due to how fast kids grow. Mendt explains how her daughter already started to walk on all fours as early as the 2nd week of September.
Although Mendt misses her daughter every day, she always puts in her best effort once she gets to school.
Overall, not being able to see her daughter as much as she grows has been a real challenge for Mendt. She also struggles with daycare, as well as making sure to dedicate most of her prep periods to provide milk for her kids. She explains, “That has been stressful, not having a lot of downtime in the day for grading or planning or anything.”
She also has trouble balancing her new home life with a kid around. She says though that planning periods have been really helpful this year to help her focus on what she needs to do. Also having a great way to manage her stress levels and doing things one step at a time has been crucial. One of her strategies is making sure to use and enjoy her late starts on Thursdays, which is a good change for her.
“I really wanted to teach world history this year because I knew they would have a tremendous planning team…But just having more people share the workload we’re as un government there’s a smaller work team differently, so it’s more individual work time and plan,” Mendt explains.
She goes on about how wonderful her team is, mainly because of how it helps her be less stressed. She only has to plan two lessons this semester, which helps make her life easier than having to do the individual work by herself.
While it’s just the start of a new period in Mendt’s life, she is already very excited to be back in the classroom for A-West.
