Mary Schwartz is a new English teacher at Skyline Senior High as of the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year. Located in room 119, she is teaching mainly 10th grade classes with a couple 9th grade classes sprinkled throughout her schedule. At her last school, Schwartz mainly taught AVID, a preparatory class at Skyline currently taught by Mrs. Del Grosso.
Her goal when teaching English classes is to encourage storytelling, and connections between students. She hopes to enable students to tell their stories, or connect with themselves while reading and analyzing. “I feel like students often can find ways to relate to characters and then open up more about who they are or learn more about themselves or more about others because you really become more empathetic reading.”
A veteran teacher of 12 years, this is her first year in Utah after moving from Kansas. However, she was born and raised in Michigan. Schwartz was the first person in her family to graduate not only high school but college, as she was born into an Amish family that she described as “like horse and buggy.” As the first generation in her family to attend higher education, scholarships were not something she was aware of. This, as well as a love for helping people, led Ms. Schwartz to join the Army National Guard after being recruited from her local high school. Although, her goal in the Army was to assist in national disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, she ended up stationed in Iraq for 2 years. Schwartz was unaffected by the change, thinking, “Wow, what a cool way to give to the world. It just so happened that the war was a little bit more important [than natural disasters] at that time.”
She transferred as a teacher to Skyline for many reasons, including academics. “It is the number one school in Utah … I’m just gonna shoot for the top and see what happens.” She was also interested in the location; similar to many other native Utahns, she loves to enjoy the outdoors via hiking, camping and fishing. “I fly fish. I’m excited to do that here. I’ve fished in Montana and the trout are so much fun to catch.”She also crochets, cooks and of course loves to read and write.
Schwartz is currently reading A tree grows in Brooklyn, which she considers a classic. Her favorite books of all time include Pride and Prejudice, as well as The Road by Cormack McCarthy.
As a final note to the students at Skyline, Schwartz expressed her appreciation to not only the staff at Skyline, but the involvement of the students. “They make coming to work a true joy.”
