Jody L Emerson

I originally went to college interested in political science, and my Intro to Poly Sci class wasn't as inspiring as I had hoped. I really loved my history courses, and I had a great history teacher in high school who made history come alive for me and made it interesting. I decided that was something I might be able to do for someone else with a history degree. That's what led me to education. I usually teach at the high school level and am currently an administrator, but I also teach online to high school students in history. I wear two hats in my daytime role - I am the superintendent for the Central Vermont Career Center School District, and the director, which is like a principal, of the Central Vermont Career Center. I have a dual role. That means I get to work with the board, oversee the staff here at the center, and work directly with students sometimes when there is an issue. Outside of that, I teach online, and that's kind of nights and weekends, teaching world history, just to keep a little bit of contact with kids in a different way, where I'm teaching them, and that's for Vermont, the Vermont Virtual Learning Corporation. I was hired here at the Career Center as the director, and the previous director had already been working on bringing this center into its own governance structure, an independent technical center, and I was able to finish that and see that through. In my previous role as an assistant principal at another school, I helped reduce suspensions and detentions through restorative practices. So far, I've always had the opportunity to interact with students. One of the things in my role right now is facilitating restorative conferences in classrooms and programs with students and staff, and that has been a great way for me to continue connecting. I get to volunteer a little bit - we have a medical professions program, and those students learn phlebotomy, so I get to go and let them try it out on me. I get to bring my car into the shop for the students in automotive to change the oil and change tires. I feel like I get to interact with them on many different levels.