Michelle Kirk is back at BHS for a second time in her 35 long years of teaching career. She has taught a range of classes, from forensics, not the dead people kind, to speech and English classes.
Kirk truly believes that every student should take a fine arts class. She has a degree in music and enjoyed choir in school.
“Fine arts are so important because they connect all the different things,” Kirk said.
Kirk teaches Honors Nine English and the Speech and Communications classes.
Kirk’s classroom is located in the Bay, or as Kirk and many students call it, “the Fish Bowl”. Kirk likes where her fishbowl is placed.
“This is a really convenient location, I am really close to the restrooms, and I have wonderful teachers on both sides, as well as being close to all the resources,” Kirk said.
The Fish Bowl used to be a conference room that held 5 to 10 people at once, not 25 students and their desks.
“The number one disadvantage is that it’s smaller, so it’s tighter and there is no airflow, so it gets a little stuffy sometimes,” Kirk said.
Kirk has taught at many schools in her past, one being Baldwin High School. Kirk taught here many moons ago and is back. She was taking a break from teaching when she heard about the poor students who had 3 different teachers in the first few weeks of school.
“I felt awful for students who have been at school for three weeks and have had different teachers, and it seemed like a perfect win, where I can step in, I know the material,” Kirk said, “Students can adjust and settle in because especially for freshmen, shifting from Jr High school is a big step and I feel like that’s something that im good at since i have mostly work with freshmen, so I really enjoy being back in what feels like home.”
Kirk decided to come back to Baldwin thanks to our friendliness.
“I love how friendly folks are, it’s just a very kind place to be,” Kirk said. “This time feels easter, the first time I was teaching with teachers who were my high school teachers, so that was kinda different.”