This past month, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cari Christopherson Kaylor (known as Mrs. Chris to her students), a high school biology teacher at Northwood High School. Mrs. Chris is also an AVID mentor and teacher at her school, a program that helps students develop college-readiness skills to promote their success in the future. In our interview, we talked about her experience as a teacher, the influences in her life that led her to her career, and what she loves about teaching high schoolers specifically.
How long have you been in your position?
I’ve been teaching for 23 years, and I’ve been at Northwood since 2007.
Could you describe how you got into this field?
I’ve always loved biology and the biological world. It was always my favorite class to take and I did very well in it. My senior year—we didn’t have AP Biology—I signed up to take honors biology, and we didn’t do anything. I remember thinking at that time ‘I could do better than this. This stuff is so amazing, why is she not trying to teach?’
My mom was a teacher as well, and she taught sixth-grade math. She told me her whole life that she did not want me to become a teacher, but I always thought that I would like that route. When I would volunteer at camps, I was always really good with the kids that were a little troubled. We always just connected, and I loved talking to them. So, when I went off to college, I actually went as pre-vet. I think I got a B in a course, or maybe even a C, and my counselor told me ‘you need to change your major.’ Finally, that’s when I called my mom and I said ‘I’m going to be a teacher, I’m sorry.’ I majored in biology and got a bachelor of science in biology with a concentration in secondary education.
Could you talk a little bit about your school journey and what that was like for you?
Well, it’s not very typical. I, like my daughter, am a very distracted person. I did well in school; however, I could have done a lot better if I just settled down and focused, but I was too busy getting distracted doing all kinds of other things. Appalachian was the only school that I applied to, and the logic behind that was not really good: I went to a college fair at my high school and I liked the people that I talked to, I thought they were nice.
So I said, ‘I’m going to apply there.’ That was it. I never even saw the school, I didn’t visit it. I got accepted, I took it, and the first time I saw Appalachian was when I went up there for orientation. A funny story about that is, the only radio station that I could pick up was country or bluegrass, and all I saw were apple stands, and it’s this tiny little country road, and I remember thinking ‘what did I get myself into?’ But I’ll never forget pulling into Boone and seeing it and seeing the school, and I immediately fell in love.
Not the smartest thing to do, and I would not recommend anybody do that.
In college, I killed it my first and second years: I made the dean’s list. Then, my brother transferred there and I’m going to blame my distractedness on him. But also it got harder. A biology major is difficult, and none of my friends were doing it. What makes it difficult is that you not only have the class, but you also have the lab, so it’s kind of like you have double classes. It was hard, but it was pretty awesome. It was a good journey.
One thing that I want to add is that, in college, I had to learn how to learn. For some reason, because I was so distracted in high school, I got by with not doing much. But when I got to college, I realized ‘I don’t know how to take a test,’ ‘I don’t really know how to study.’ It wasn’t until my last two years of college that I really truly figured that out. Then, it was like ‘oh, this is easy!’
What helped you figure that out? What did you do?
It was basically when I realized that what I was doing didn’t work. I remember I made note cards, and my parents always picked on me because of it. I always knew the first bit of my notes really well because I didn’t like how the notecard looked, so I would throw it away and make another one, but the end part of the notes I didn’t even look over because I was too busy trying to be neat. I abandoned the note card thing and started to work in study groups. I worked with other people and talked about it instead of just trying to memorize facts. And that’s something I really appreciate about [my students] is that [they] talk it out, and that’s huge. If you can explain it to somebody, you can answer any question about it. Teaching helped me learn that even more.
Did you have a favorite class while you were there?
I did. It’s a tough one since I say I love everything, but it was my plant classes. Every single one of them: systematic botany, plant physiology, all of it. And I loved entomology: it was like my dream class, and it was amazing. They had a class that was actually showing the interaction between plants and insects, and those were my favorite classes.
Why do you enjoy doing what you do?
There are so many different things. Typically, I teach regular biology, and part of the reason why that is is that I really do feel like that’s my niche. I work really well with those kids and I kind of get them over to the science side. That’s something that makes me really happy: You’ve got a kid who isn’t really excited about school but loves your biology class. I think that’s because biology is freaking amazing. It’s just so fascinating, and it explains everything. And you get to play! I love doing the labs. But with [my AP classes], it’s a whole different perspective that makes me even more excited. With [them], it’s more about getting to the content and getting [them] to understand.
It’s also building relationships. With my regular kids, it’s the relationship first, and if we get the biology stuff that’s good. So I love the relationships that I get, I love getting the kids excited about science. They come in here hating science, but then they see that it’s kind of cool.
But also I still get excited about it. I’ve been doing this for 23 years, and it never gets old seeing a cheek cell or a stomata or talking about photosynthesis. I never get bored, which is interesting. You think you’d get bored only teaching biology, teaching the same thing, but it gets better every time.
Could you talk about being an AP teacher specifically and what that entails?
I’ve never really taught an AP class [before this year]. I did do honors biology, but so many people don’t want to teach regular biology. Honors was fun, but I didn’t really have fun until AP. The first time I taught it, it was online when it was COVID. Labs are a huge component of it, so that was not fun at all, I didn’t like that. But this year, I can’t say how many times I go home and tell my husband how cool it is. It’s really cool to teach something, and really have [my students] get it, then take it even further. [They] ask so many good questions, and that keeps me on my toes too because I have to go down these rabbit holes to think about the questions that might get asked. And [they] still come up with more. It’s so exciting and so fun to see [them] get excited and have those light bulbs go off. [One student] had a lightbulb the other day and I almost had tears. That’s what you want as a teacher.
One thing I don’t like is that then I have to go to my tenth-grade biology and slam on the breaks. I have to get my brain out of all of this crazy stuff and back up a little bit. That has been a little tricky sometimes.
I wish I had started with it earlier.
Is there any extra training that you have to do?
I did have to go to these AP workshops. The thing that’s really helpful with the biology one is that you go through a lot of the major labs and see how it’s set up. That helps out a lot, and they also give you resources to use. The tricky thing about science is that not only do you teach the subject, but you should have a lab or activity. I’ve been to two AP trainings, and that really opened that up. It’s a week-long and it’s intensive: you go from eight to five all day. It’s intense, and you feel a little brain-fried by the end of it, but it’s worth it.
Why might a student or young person want to pursue a similar career?
Why wouldn’t you? One, STEM is a huge field. Especially with biology, that is something that is always in demand. With my degree—I have a bachelor of science in biology— I’m hoping to use that old degree to go do something else [in the future]. It allows you to do all kinds of things.
But I also think kids naturally like science. Even with my kids now, they just want to do experiments, which I think [my students] still do too. It’s relatable, it’s the real world. Especially with stuff like artificial intelligence and genetic engineering, all this stuff that’s coming up now, I don’t know why you wouldn’t [want to pursue it], aside from the fact that it’s hard. You have to work. It’s hard, but it’s worth it. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want to go into science.
What would you say to someone who is debating whether or not they want to enter a teaching or scientific field?
That’s almost a trick question because in North Carolina, it’s not the best place to teach. When I started teaching, in 2000, there were still so many incentives for it. You could get longevity pay, you could get paid for your masters, you could get a pension. What I feel like North Carolina is doing now is that they’re taking a lot of that away. For teachers that start now, the retirement [plan] is not there for them. If someone were to come in with a masters, they’re not going to pay them for that, and I think that’s a huge mistake because if you want good teachers, you’ve got to give those incentives.
It’s tough because I don’t want to tell them not to go into teaching because it’s so important, but at the same time, part of me is like ‘go to another state.’ Like in Minnesota, if you take one graduate-level course, you get a bump in pay. Just one, and they give you money for that. Why wouldn’t you give your teachers an incentive to learn more?
It’s a tricky question because I don’t make a lot of money, but if you’re a teacher here, you’re not in it for the money, you’ve kind of accepted that. You accept the fact that you’re not in it for the money, you’re in it for the subject and because you love kids and seeing them get excited about it. It sounds so cliche, but that right there is priceless.
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