Victoria James

“I have taught at PHS for four years. Definitely feels like where I am supposed to be! I teach English 10 and Creative Writing, but I have had English 9 and Honors English 10 in the past. While I love my English 10 classes and curriculum, my Creative Writing class has a special place in my heart. Being in an elective we all have freedom, which makes me feel thankful because I am able to read their stories and see their creativity every day. In English 10, I think my favorite unit is Gothic Literature, because we read stories that make the students get so invested in the characters and plot that they want to talk and vent about it. There are a lot of “what just happened” moment, because Gothic Lit is creepy and really makes readers question everything. In Creative Writing my favorite unit was the Children’s Book unit or the Pixar unit, because the students were able to think back to when they were kids and I saw them get excited about the short films. They find joy in creating books that they will get to read to little kids at the elementary schools. I have revamped the class this semester and we have a Fanfiction unit, which makes me really excited to see what students will create based off books, movies, or TV shows that they love. My favorite book to “teach” is me letting my students work in literature circles and choose books that discuss ideas of injustices from different cultures. I book talk them all and see my students get excited about the book options and once they start reading, they become really invested in the stories and the injustices the characters face.”