Crimson and Gold Connection; Megan Reid

I graduated in December of 1999 and I was a biology major education and I had a minor in physical science. What were your influences or why did you choose to attend Pittsburgh State University when it came down to it? Well, first of all, I'm from Chinuit. I grew up in Chinuit, so I loved the fact that it was close to home. I was pursuing an opportunity to not only go to school but also play basketball and Pittsburgh State was one of the schools that had shown interest in me and offered me a basketball scholarship and I loved the players in the program and I loved the coaching staff and you know how to chance to come over quite a few times and you know be on campus in high school for different activities and so I was really familiar with it and you know when everything came together it just came down to it seemed like the right place to be and I wanted to be close to home so my folks could get over and watch me play and I just had everything I wanted. I liked the people a lot, I didn't know what I wanted to study necessarily at the time I chose a school.

There's a lot of really good people there and I liked the fact that the people that I was going to be around were good people and I thought would be really good influences on me so that was kind of a culmination of all the things I wanted just happened to be right close to home in Pittsburgh State. What are some of your favorite memories you hold from your time at Pittsburgh State? Well certainly I've been thinking a lot of them are basketball related I spend a lot of time in the weed and John Lancerina but certainly lots of great memories you know when I was a freshman I stayed in Nation Hall so I have a lot of great memories from life in the dorms which I firmly believe everybody that goes to college needs to spend some time with dorm life. I remember my first semester I had a third floor class in rough hall and we had a lot of morning basketball workouts you know running and training in August and September and I remember there are a lot of days that climbing all the way up those stairs in rough hall to get to the third floor after I just done a basketball workout in the morning were pretty killer to me.

I spent a lot of time in the computer lab in Kelp. I remember those good memories I spent a lot of time in the library I remember my roommates and I used to go to the library and me and one of my roommates Jamie would go up to the third floor and you know we'd go hide in the corner at a table by herself and one of our other friends Jenny would park herself in a table closest to the door so she could have some social time in the library but I remember that I had a lot of great professors that I remember Dr. Riches was my advisor and had a lot of biology and genetics classes from him and I remember a lot of really hard classes that I took from Dr. Schoberg, I took geology and oceanography and I just remember setting for hours and hours to get through his classes and Dr. June Taylor I had some education classes from her that I just absolutely loved so I feel like I was led to where I am now with some of the preparation that I had with my classes and then of course those you know good memories that are a little more fresh than some of the other the good things that happened the fun times

I went through with my friends and certainly basketball related that I remember it's those little things that I've forgotten until I've gotten around you know other friends at the same time and oh hey do you remember this and then it kind of comes back but I absolutely love pitch for today I was fortunate to be able to go back and work there I was an assistant coach for three years after I finished playing so I feel like I lived in Pittsburgh I think about nine years and it was pretty nine pretty special years of my life currently you are teaching just tell everyone out there where you are teaching and what subjects that you currently teach I am in my fourth year teaching in the Blue Valley School District I teach at Oxford Middle School I teach seventh grade life science last year I've taught eighth grade seventh grade and sixth grade in my 11 years of teaching but here in Blue Valley I've taught sixth grade and seventh grade I'm currently teaching seventh grade science what do you love about your job teaching oh every day is different I really love to work with young people especially I mean I certainly have a lot of good

memories of working together you know as a part of a basketball team but I know when I was growing up in Chinuit I had a lot of really good teachers you know elementary and high school that just had a really had a major impact on me you know they whether they just took an interest in me as a person or they were just a really good teacher so I feel like I was inspired by them and I'm reminded of all those neat things it did for me when I was a student when I'm in the position of standing you know looking out to 30 kids you know every 45 minutes that come through my classroom so I love the kids first and foremost I teach science I like it but I love the kids I love the connections that you can make with your students I get to see almost 200 students every day in my classes I just love the influence the connections that you can make and certainly the laughs and the fun times it's it's a challenge I like that it's something different every day I don't think I'm a person that could have a desk job or sit in front of a computer every day I like

to be around people so that certainly affords me that opportunity as a teacher and aside from that you also do help out coaching a few of the extra curricular teams can you talk about that just briefly and what joys does that give you over maybe something that a classroom setting can well I certainly have a passion for athletics you know I still get out and try to be as active as I can I certainly can do the things I used to be able to do but I coach girls basketball and boys and girls track here at Oxford and I absolutely love it I love the it's just a different setting you're dealing with the same students that you do in a classroom but I know personally I can be a little bit different on the corridor out in the track setting so I'm probably a little bit more laid back and so the kids get to see you know a different side of me but I also get to see the the students in a different capacity as well and I just think it's neat it's just a different it just has a different feel all around I really love the connection the relationships that you can gain through that but probably the most rewarding would be

those life lessons that you learn through athletics the difficulties and the fighting through adversity and the discipline that it affords kids those lessons that they can learn as young people that they're going to be able to carry over but it certainly is one of the things that I get the most joy out of in my day and the things that I get to do every day at my job you have been nominated recently for the honor of being the 2015 Kansas master teacher of the year kind of explain what that means to you well first of all I really don't I'm not sure that I'm deserving of that but I I was nominated at my school by my peers my fellow teachers which I'm very fortunate I work with some amazing people and amazing teachers that I get to learn from every day so so the nomination by my the people that I work with on a daily basis means a lot to me I mean I know back when I was a student athlete it was always important to me to to do a good

job for my team as much as it was for me to do a good job for my coach and so having this nomination by the people that I work with who I think are way better than me on most days that means a lot to me that they would hold those good thoughts for me but I certainly know I've been really fortunate to have worked with a lot of good people and just kind of watched and learned and stolen from them so I it's really rewarding I feel like I really work hard at what I do and I want to I want to be thought of in a positive light whether it's from students or my administrators or my fellow teachers so it was a big surprise but it's certainly something that I felt really great that it's pretty rewarding feeling is there anything else that you would you would like to add to this any other any other points or anything I've looked over I really really love Pittsburgh State I was there Saturday I came down to watch the basketball game I hadn't had a chance to to watch the girls yet and it's great I always try to come down and hit Maldonnelly and go to

jock's nitch and got some friends that live in the area so it's always just a neat time anytime I can get down there and I find a lot of excuses if you will or reasons to hop on 69 and drive down and just get to be there because I just I really do feel like at home I spend a lot of good years there and I just love the connection you know I went to the game I I see Dr. Campbell who is one of my teachers I was walking in and saw Dr. Bryant and I got to give him a hug and I'm just really fortunate that my life's path took me through there for quite a few years well Megan again thanks so much for joining us and congratulations on being nominated for the 2015 Kansas Master Teacher of the Year. Great thanks so much.