At room 216 you’ll find Mrs. Harris with an open door. She’s been working at Victor for 16 years now and happily in the math department. She teaches Geometry honors, pre-classic honors, and math support. Mrs Harris loves what she does and pushes students to feel the same. She emphasizes on hard work and pushing yourself because YOU are capable.
Math for her has always been her thing but from early on she realized that’s not the case for everyone. After tutoring a kid in high school through a NHS volunteer program, her love and passion for teaching started. “Micth, Ill always remember him. Seeing him do so well on his Regents after helping him out warmed my heart. A kid who will carry on in my mind forever and always.
Harris has always chosen Victor. She started student teaching here and knew this is where she wanted it to be. She had the opportunity for a full time position at a different school but turned it down for a part time here at Victor. “Its the atmosphere here that I love. The people inside it fill it up even more and I wouldn’t want it anywhere else”.
It’s not only about math for her. The connections she makes along the way with her students passed down generation from generation is what stands out. Having had two of my older siblings in past years I asked her how she feels about it and if it’s hard to separate students from one another. “No, actually I think it’s quite the opposite of hard, in fact It’s really fun seeing siblings in the same families. It comes with experiences but you definitely realize that there are similarities and there are differences in everyone and at the end of the day everyone is their own person with different strengths and weaknesses and you have to treat them with that.”
If you’ve ever been in class with Mrs. Harris you know she has two kids, Connor and Andrew She’s the type of person to be on time with everything and always staying the extra minute to help with whatever you need. Balancing her life, her kids, and her students all at once isn’t easy but she manages it all, and manages it well.
Now, Mrs. Harris has her own student teacher. She sees a part of herself in this full circle moment with Mr. Pero now helping out in class. Having taught him and his other siblings she’s seen him grow and had the ability to understand how different he was from his siblings but she knew that either way she wanted to help him. He wanted to get here and now he made it and Mrs. Harris as the opportunity to see the young student she used to teach succeed into becoming a future teacher. That’s why when you love something you stick with it.
During my time in class I’ve realized how truly passionate Mrs. Harris is and how she sees the good in everyone. She believes in each and every single one of us and said that’s how it’s been since high school for herself. She’s pushed me not only to become a stronger math student but a better person overall with her countless life lessons I’ve learned along the way. You gotta do what you love from the start. That’s what I’ll remember.
