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By: Adi Din
For this issue, we sat down with Mrs. Marsh, the IB Coordinator and Director of Debate and Forensics. She’s in her 40th year of being an educator and has been teaching at Dexter for the last 30. She’s recognized by her peers as being the “backbone” of DHS. Scan the QR code to watch the full interview.
What were you like in high school?
“Kind of embarrassing, I was a majorette in the marching band, and so I twirled a baton and wore those sparkly little outfits. I also was on the student council and was involved in the literary magazine and I was the editor of the literary magazine. I took Spanish, French, and German, all three languages because I thought I was going to be a translator. It was a different time: there weren’t as many requirements that you guys had for graduation back in the 70s. I didn’t take a single math class in all of high school. I took Algebra 2 in 8th grade, and then I never took any more math.”
What was your most memorable or impactful moment from your whole teaching career?
“Oh my gosh. Well, my career has been almost 40 years, so that’s like too broad of a question. Actually, this is my 40th year teaching. Honestly, it’s all the people that I feel have been a part of my team or part of my class/take all my classes, and so I feel really connected to them and… still being friends with them is my most impactful thing. A couple of years ago, a student in a debate – a regular debate class – wasn’t on my team but he was also in my IB Film and video production classes. I had had him for three years. [He] contacted me out of the blue on Facebook Messenger and he said ‘I’m going to be back in town and I would really love to get together with you.’ And so we met up for dinner and talked about how in school he was kind of on the – he was in trouble a lot. He was one of those kids who was super smart but didn’t achieve very much in high school. So he said that one of the reasons that he wanted to reach out to me was because I actually cared about him and knew that he was smart and I encouraged him to do hard things, and even though he didn’t want to do them, he realized he could do them later. So now he is working on a P.H.D., so that’s kind of cool!”
What hobbies or interests do you have outside of the classroom?
I walk a lot. I walk like two miles a day, that’s my goal. Some days I don’t get two miles. Sometimes I only get a mile in because I don’t get home till late. I listen to books while I walk. I listen to fiction; I don’t have time to read because of school and everything, so I listen and I walk. I love to cook, I love to be a grandma although I am a ‘Mimi’ actually. I knit when I watch TV
and I make baby blankets, I’ve made baby blankets for lots of teachers in this building who have had babies and former students of mine. I’m teaching students of students that I’ve had. I taught Mrs. Ford who does the sales and marketing and I also taught her son Grant. I taught Avery Nesbitt’s dad and her mom. I taught Lauren Thompson, although I don’t teach Cooper but he does go to our school. I taught Mr. Peterson, I taught Murphy Hansen, Mr. Heidtke, Huffman. I taught Mrs. Krickett; actually she and her husband met in my creative writing class. So many people who work in this district.
