Kristen Eleftheri-Cunningham is a seventh-grade math teacher at Union Township Middle School. Eleftheri-Cunningham found her love for teaching through her own family.
“I grew up with a lot of teachers in the family. And through middle school and high school, I always liked helping fellow classmates when they were struggling with content, specifically math, and decided when I got to college to pursue that,” said Eleftheri-Cunningham.
This year will be Eleftheri-Cunningham's fifth year teaching at Union Township Middle School. Eleftheri-Cunningham's favorite part about teaching is when a student finally realizes what they are doing.
“I really like seeing that moment when the light bulb goes off when you're explaining something to anyone, a student, or colleague, or whatever. Just helping someone come to that realization of, oh, it all just clicks,” said Eleftheri-Cunningham.
While Eleftheri-Cunningham was in school for teaching at Indiana University she had the opportunity to student teach in New Zealand.
“I picked the furthest destination, which was New Zealand, and I'd always wanted to go. Being there was really eye-opening to see education in a different country where they really valued experiences. It was a very open classroom style, which is a lot different than what I've seen here in the U.S.,” said Eleftheri-Cunningham.
Eleftheri-Cunningham’s trip to New Zealand helped her figure out that she wanted to teach middle school classes.
“Originally, my degree was for elementary education with a focus in science and math because I preferred those subjects. And I student taught with the elementary schools and really liked it. I then did my student teaching in New Zealand, and those were kids who would be considered middle school for us in the U.S., so I got to work with even older kids. I just liked having the older kids because they understand the basics. You don't really have to teach them the fundamentals of how to write and things like that,” said Eleftheri-Cunningham.
While teaching at Union Township Middle School, Eleftheri-Cunningham has made many fun memories with her students.
“My favorite memory is being a sponsor for the Bearcat News Team, which are student ran video announcements. We started it three years ago and one of my favorite parts is when the students compile a blooper segment for the new year and end of the school year. It’s so cool to see the kids having so much fun and then of course who doesn’t love bloopers,” said Eleftheri-Cunningham.
Outside of teaching, Eleftheri-Cunningham loves to hike and spend time with family. She also likes to do dog agility with her red heeler mix pup.
“I have a dog that we rescued two years ago, and he's pretty awesome. We do dog agility with him, so I do the whole dog weave, jumps, and tunnels, that kind of agility course with him. So that's pretty fun,” said Eleftheri-Cunningham.
Eleftheri-Cunningham believes that the best part about teaching is the connections that she gets to make with all of the people at Union Township Middle School.
“One of the best parts about teaching is the connections you make not only with the students, but colleagues in the community. School is kind of like its own group. You meet so many people within it, I think it's really nice to see that,” said Eleftheri-Cunningham.