By Chloe Oliver
Her plans did a complete one-eighty from moving out of state with her roommate to staying in her hometown.
Miss Betsy Marshall is one of Delta’s new teachers this year. After graduating from Delta in 2020, she returns for a different purpose.
“I never thought I would teach here,” Marshall said.
Originally, she planned to go into the medical field and do biological research. However, in her senior year of high school, she realized she wanted to go into teaching.
Marshall attended Indiana Wesleyan University, a private Christian university in Marion, Ind. Marshall felt like it was the perfect size where she was two steps from knowing everyone.
“It felt like a community,” Marshall said.
She changed her major from Biology to English education after taking a Life Calling class IWU offers. It made more sense to Marshall this way.
“One of the things that I am most passionate about is teaching students that you don’t have to go to college to be successful,” Marshall said. “Delta just offers so many possibilities with all the dual credit classes and with the (Muncie Area Career Center).”
She loves learning and wants to help kids enjoy school more.
Many teachers who have had Miss Marshall as a student are still here.
“It’s so different from being their student and still learning from them since they have so many more years of experience than I do,” Marshall said. “They’re teaching me how to be a teacher now instead of teaching me how to be a student.”
One of Marshall’s top mentors is her former professor from college, Kimberly DeMichael. She was a supportive person that Marshall looked up to in her time at Indiana Wesleyan. From her time in high school, she said Mr. Paul Orchard, Mr. Kip Omstead and Dr. Lance Brand were some of the most influential teachers in her high school career.
Marshall’s goal is to help kids learn how they learn. It was her senior year when she found out how she learned, and that was a turning point for her. Marshall said she is a kinesthetic learner; notepaper and pen don’t do as much for her as being hands-on.
The new position opened because the former teacher and drama director, Mrs. Dawn Raleigh, retired last year. Marshall talked with some of her friends and family about the open position. Her plans took an unexpected turn.
“If it’s what I’m supposed to do, then that door will open up. And then it did, so I stepped through it,” Marshall said.
Junior Kaden Crist is one of Miss Marshall’s students. He enjoys her class, the activities they do, and the fun environment.
“It helps a little bit just knowing that they went through the same stuff as you did within the last couple of years,” Kaden said. “They understand you a little bit more.”
Mr. Jacob Brewer is also a first-year teacher. He teaches three sections each of Biology and Earth Space Science.
For Brewer, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. His father had been talking to him about it over the summer. His father, Mr. Brian Brewer, taught in the science wing last year, and then moved to assistant principal due to the retirement of former assistant principal, Mr. Elwood.
“The more that I’m in it, the more I have liked it, and the more that I wished I would have done it right out of college,” Jacob Brewer said.
Brewer spent his time after college serving as the head tennis professional at the Muncie Family YMCA, as long as the Community Sports and Wellness club in Pendleton, Ind. After working with kids, he decided that he wanted to impact students’ lives more than he was originally.
His most memorable moment in high school was in retired teacher Mr. Paul Orchard’s history class.
“There would be different dress-up days and food carry-ins where we would try to carry in the food of the civilization or the era we were studying,” Brewer said. “We would do review games.”
He has tried to implement those ideas in his classes as well as adding some fun to his classes.
As a future goal, Mr. Brewer wants to become certified to teach some of the dual credit courses that Delta offers.
Now, he is working in the same building with his dad.
Although not seeing him every day during school hours, he talks to him here and there before and after school.
“I think it’s more fun for him than it is for me,” Jacob Brewer said. “But it is nice to start to see him more regularly.”
It’s easier for him to spend time with his family now that he isn’t working night shifts coaching tennis.
Freshman Addysin Shipley is one of Mr. Brewer’s students. Before class, she and other students get to pet their class chinchilla, Chloe.
“He explains everything in a way for his students to understand,” Addysin said. “I think he is doing well. I’ve learned a lot in his class so far.”
