Katie McDevitt

• Position: Teacher aide 
• Degrees & Alma Mater: Bachelor degree in horticulture 
• Years at Caney Creek: 11
• Years Teaching: 11

How would other people describe your high-school self?

I was a teachers pet, I was always the smart kid.

Was there a career you wanted to pursue OR pursued before teaching?

I was a proofreader and editor for nine years.

Tell us about how you got into teaching.

Well, after I got laid off from the newspaper that I worked for I had to figure out what I was going to do with my life and I found an online position here at Caney Creek and I went to school here, so I emailed the principal at the time and she offered me a job. Then I got my certification to teach and started teaching the next year

What do you do outside of school for fun? Why?

I love to read, but I also build miniatures. I like to do room dioramas and like kits that come with all the stuff and the instructions that you can build. I enjoy things where you have an end product when you’re done and you can see the results.

When people get to know you, what are they most surprised to learn about you? (If needed) What is your hidden talent? (If needed) What is something you know a weird amount about that isn’t related to something you teach?

I think other teachers are most surprised that I didn’t start out in teaching, it’s always interesting to see when other people that are teachers came from some other backgrounds you know?

Who is someone you are thankful for and why?

Personally, my parents because they always encouraged me to do whatever I wanted and they are always proud of whatever I do. I have wonderful parents and professionally probably like my teachers in high school because I had one teacher she was my English teacher for ninth and tenth grade English and she knew before I did that I was going to be a teacher. I told her ‘There’s no way and I don’t want to do that,’ and she was like, you know, I think you’d be good at it and whatever. Then 13 years later, when I started teaching here, she was like, ‘I knew it all along, if you just listened to me you’d have been teaching for all these years,’ so she really believed in me before I believed in myself. She knew me better than I kind of knew what I wanted for myself.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

To try more things like don’t be so set in your ways and to experience as much as you can while you can. You know, because if you shut yourself in a box and that’s all you know and do then there’s so many things that you could experience if you just had put yourself out there and then it’s too late later sometimes to be more open minded and to try stuff.

What do you hope to be remembered for?

That I cared and that even though it may not be as obvious as some other teachers, I still had people’s best interests in mind.

What’s on your bucket list? (If needed) What aspirations do you have for the future?

I have an adventurous streak. I like to do cool fun things. So like, I’ve done a lot of stuff but one of my mother’s things that I really want to try is hang gliding, and riding in a helicopter. Those are things I’ve never done that I would just love to do. And you know, those bridges that go all the way across the canyon, and there’s like a rushing river below and it’s like the skinny bridge, like I always wanted to, like walk on one of those. Like I’ve been on a suspension bridge but it’s like modern and you know metal and it’s boring, you know, but like the kind that swing and the wind and have the ropes on the sides. I just thought that would be so cool to actually get to walk on one of those and have the river like below you. So like I have an adventurous streak. But it was like later in life that I started trying stuff. As for aspirations , I think just to be the best teacher I can right now and eventually to be able to enjoy, you know, retirement in the future and be able to relax more.

Favorites

• Food: Macaroni and cheese 
• Restaurant: Cracker Barrel 
• Music: Swing
• TV Show: “Stargate SG-1” (original)
• Movie: “Jane Eyre”
• Book: Juvenile fantasy, like with magic and dragons and sorcerers.
• Teacher: Mrs.Rud