As people grow, they go on journeys far unexpected and Tia Stubbs definitely is an example. As a child growing up she never really imagined herself as a teacher. Although her dad told her she would make a great teacher someday, she definitely had other plans for her future. 

“Originally I thought about going to school for forensic psychology,”  Stubbs said. Stubbs ended up going to school for broadcasting, journalism, communications, and marketing. The classes she took started off her career as a teacher without her knowing it. She helped kids get into colleges and then realized after thinking about her skills and talents, that she could not only help kids get into college  and  teach at the college level, but over time her thought process changed. It was time to teach high schoolers and better their future to develop skills they will take to college.  

“The world feels so dark and it can feel so heavy, but  when I’m in a classroom, I don’t feel that. I truly believe that teens are our best hope for our world because teenagers still have joy… kids these days have a big heart. Kids these days have so much hope,” Stubbs said.

The only downfall Stubbs could think of for being a teacher is feeling like she does not have enough time. She wished to have more time in her day to have time to grade papers and get points across. While time is precious, Stubbs has to also worry about what is best for her own family, in trying to balance work and life time. As she needs to take care of herself. Stubbs decides to put her students before herself a lot of the time.   

Stubbs went to college in two different places, First the University of Northern Iowa then Mississippi State. Her teaching style can change based on the class she is teaching. Since she teaches different classes they are taught in different ways. She has a 5th hour class where she co-teaches journalism courses with Jessica Trier. This class consists of a few different classes all happening at the same time. Each class is pretty small, but things still get pretty crazy. With one student being in the year book, two students editors for the newspaper, four students being In broadcasting and lastly six students in Intro to Journalism. Within this class there is a lot that takes place and Stubbs teaching style is a bit more laid back and easy going. When it comes to teaching Comp one and Comp two the teaching style switches up just a bit more. She tries to stay relaxed and give the push that is required, but with such a big class seating charts may be required. She wants an environment where everyone feels respected and heard. Just so students get the learning experience that they deserve.

 As a young child, Stubbs was majorly impacted by a teacher’s compliment towards her writing. Stubbs has advice for all of her students, “Trust yourself, trust your inner voice that guides you. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and you do wanna put in all of your energy and give it your all. Just because it’s not perfect does not mean it’s not good.” 

One last thing Stubbs wants to say to all of North Polk students is that she “really enjoys teaching and I really enjoy my students, they are the best part of this job. I just enjoy learning from them too, because I can not tell you how many times I have learned from a certain student… I see something new, learn something new, realise something new from a different perspective and that is one of the joys of teaching.”