Becca Wyant is one of the newest teachers at New Life Academy. Up until this fall, Ms. Wyant was teaching Middle School and High School Social Studies in Kuwait. Now – for her eighth year teaching – she’s the Upper School History teacher at New Life. She can’t wait to use her international experience to help students make more connections to history, since she’s visited a lot of the places they’ll be studying. “I can be a real nerd about history and help other people love it, “ Ms. Wyant remarks on her passion for the subject.
Ms. Wyant grew up wanting to become a teacher because her older sister was one. Then, over time, her motivation to become a teacher was about the relationships she could build with students. Ms. Wyant is overseeing student council this year as a way to connect more with students and better understand the school culture.
Ms. Wyant has three goals for her students this year:
- Adopt a growth mindset. The goal for her students is that they are always trying, even if they don’t have it all figured out right away.
- Remain open-minded. With history and current events, it’s important to empathize with someone else, even if you completely disagree with them.
- Find the thing in history you find most interesting and engage with that. She hopes this will inspire curiosity outside of the classroom.
Ms. Wyant is inspired to teach because the world is constantly changing, and there are always connections to be made between history and today. This year she’s excited to encourage students to take their knowledge and see how they can use it to become Kingdom builders. She says it’s easy to compartmentalize your faith but the benefit of teaching at a Christian school is that you can infuse your faith into everything and “see how Christ should be the center of everything you do.”