English teacher Ms. Amy May was born in California, where she spent most of her time in the Bay Area.

To Ms. May, California is “a completely different world,” she said. “When I moved here, this was very much like a country environment, and I came from a major city.”

She always had a love for teaching, even in her youth. “When I was really young, I thought I would like to be a teacher,” she said. “I think, maybe when I was growing up, I thought about different things, but I think, when I really thought about a career, I usually imagined myself as a teacher.” 

Ms. May had considered becoming either a counselor or an attorney, but that was quickly removed from the picture after discussing it with many people working in those fields. She recalled a conversation she had with an attorney in college, and “he talked to me about all the reasons that he wouldn’t be an attorney again” she said. “So it put me right back on my path toward teaching.”

It was because of her experience in college of trying many different subjects and fields of study that made her realize she wanted to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an English teacher. 

“After my education, I thought, ‘Wow, if I wasn’t going to school later in my life, I might have gone into a completely different field,’” she said.

Ms. May’s admiration for one of her former high school English teachers gave her a love for the work ethic required in teaching. “People did not like him because he had really high standards,” she said. “I thought it was amazing… and then realized, as a student, the value of someone who actually is asking you to rise to an occasion and believes that you can.”

Before teaching at La Salle, Ms. May taught at the University of Dixie State and Washington State University. When it came down to deciding whether she wanted to teach at the high school or college level, Ms. May was “super torn,” between the two. While she thoroughly enjoyed teaching at universities, a few factors brought her to the decision to teach at La Salle.

“I had thought about [teaching high school] from the very beginning,” Ms. May said. “And I saw the job opening here at La Salle, and I thought ‘I want to go home to Portland… and this is something I’ve always wanted to do.’ I looked at the job description, and so I thought, ‘I think I’m going to try it and see what I think.’”

Teaching sophomores and seniors at La Salle, Ms. May enjoys being able to witness students’ growth from their second year of high school to their last first-hand.

“It’s also kind of cool to see what happens from the time students are sophomores to the time they are seniors,” she said. “Just the development that happens in them maturity-wise with their work, those kinds of things.” 

Her future goals in the coming years at La Salle are to dedicate her time to bringing fresh materials to her classes each year, so her students get a new and different experience from that of classes the year prior, and to give them room to express their diverse strengths. 

Ms. May loves to see the creativity that her students portray in her classes, assigning her students work with the purpose of allowing them to unlock their creative sides that they might not otherwise see in themselves. “I’m always trying to think of ways that they can demonstrate the skills they have that are creative,” she said.

She continues to teach at the high school level because she loves to see her students grow as individuals. She sees the potential that her students have to become a greater version of who they already are as students.

“I think a lot, as I look out at my class over the year, about who was in the room, that there are difference-makers in the room, that my students are going to go on and do things with their lives that are going to change the world,” she said. “They’re the next group who changes the world.”

To Ms. May, personal growth is a huge aspect of being a teacher. “To be a teacher, you need to grow every year,” she said. She mentioned how she’s had to change some of her approaches to assignments, her teaching, and her perception of her students’ capabilities. 

“Every year my students teach me some things that I didn’t know or make me consider things about how I teach,” she said. “So, it’s been an ongoing growth.”