What is your name and department? Hardening questions from the bat; my name is Jackie Ehrlich and I work in the Science Department as a physics teacher.
How long have you been at Niles North? How long have you been a teacher? This is my fourth year teaching at Niles North, also my fourth year of teaching in general; I got this job right out of college. I also went to Niles North as a student, so I’ve been part of the community for way, way longer.
Did anything from your time as a student impact your job as a teacher? Oh, every day, yeah. I think the fact that I’m even a teacher is because of some of the amazing teachers I got to have here and got to work with here who really showed me how beautiful of a job it is. They showed me it’s challenging but so rewarding to see the impact you make on kids every single day. So, I don’t think I’d even be a teacher if it weren’t for my experience here at Niles North.
Would you recommend teaching at Niles North to current students? Why or why not? I recommend teaching as a profession to just about anyone. I think it is a great job. To do it at your old high school can be a unique challenge, I guess, there’s some awkwardness to it when you start. Especially having to call people by their first names and things like that. As long as you’re able to get rid of some of the “first year awkwardness,” I definitely think it’s worth it, because you have a much deeper connection with the community, and I think that helps inspire me on the harder days.
Which type of science is your favorite and why? Physics! I love physics because it explains everything. You even look at chemistry or biology and you need the laws of physics for any of that to happen. I just think it’s so interconnected to any question you have about the universe, you need physics to answer that question.
What is your favorite thing about science and/or teaching science? My favorite thing about teaching science is getting to do labs. I love seeing that energy and chaos in the room when everyone’s running around the room, doing different things. I just think it’s so cool to see students approach the same problem in so many different ways, and get excited about the approach that they’re taking, and really see some creativity shine.
What is your greatest strength or accomplishment regarding science? I don’t know…my greatest accomplishment, although it sounds really, really silly, my senior year here, I was part of the Science Olympiad team, and I built a plane. A model, balsa wood plane that won a medal at State and I worked so ridiculously hard on it. Every single free period, me and my partner were working on building this thing and working on this engineering project. I don’t know, I think it was one of those moments where I was like, “Oh, hard work really does pay off.”
If you could pursue any other occupation for a living, what would it be? I would be a lawyer. I’d probably want to work in labor law for unions.
What are your hobbies outside of school? I love to play tennis, I love to bake and cook, but especially bake. In the past year or two, I have really started getting into video games as well.
What is your current walk up song? Trying to think of who I am…One of my favorite songs of all time, that I really like, and I think is applicable to things I care about in life and the energy I bring to some of the work I do in life is Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5′. When really it’s 7 to 7 as a teacher.
If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why? I would love the ability to read minds. I think it would be weirdly helpful as a teacher, but I also am just generally a kind of nosy person and want to know what people are thinking.
Given the classic, ethical “Trolley Problem,” would you pull the lever and kill one person or do nothing and leave 5 people to die? I am a very practical person; when I have a really hard decision to make, I’m a big fan of just a classic pros and cons list. I just try to take emotion out of it as much as possible and think practically, so I probably would pull the lever to save more lives.
