What is your name and occupation? My name is Julie Scott, and I am a social studies teacher and assistant debate coach at Niles North.
Why did you decide to teach in the history department? I had really excellent history teachers in high school, and it was my favorite subject, and when I got to college, I couldn’t think of anything else that I wanted to do for the rest of my life besides talk about history. I like trying to make it interesting for students. So teaching history seems like a pretty natural fit.
How is Niles North different from other schools you’ve worked at? I feel like the community and the support at Niles North is especially different from the last high school that I taught at. I think the students here are very involved in stuff, and when they, like, interact in the hallways, you can tell that they love being part of this community, that they have their friends. So it’s really nice to see that in the hallways, in activities, in classes. I feel very supported as a teacher here, too.
Who is your biggest inspiration? I’ll be very basic and say my mom. My mom was a special education teacher at my high school, which was very interesting as a student to be in the same place as your mom. But she is so patient and passionate. She’s retired now, and she has like eight different organizations that she volunteers with, like she volunteers for a monarch butterfly organization and then a domestic violence organization. She goes to elementary school to like teach kids about eco-friendly recycling. She’s so cool. So yeah, just like the way she feels her time and has lived her life. She used to bike to work every day, and everybody was making fun of her. But, yeah, she’s so cool.
You’re a debate coach here at Niles North. So far, what has been a favorite memory of yours, either at practice, a tournament, a party? Oh, gosh. The holiday party was really fun. Like, honestly, I should have been expecting the stories that we got from building the gingerbread houses, but I wasn’t. Like, I thought everybody was gonna kind of build, like, a pretty traditional gingerbread house and tell a traditional story. And I was very surprised, like, in a good way, because it was just so, like, classic debaters to come up with these, like, creative debate-related stories. And that was really fun. I think even also, like, the very first time that I came to practice, even before school started, like, we had those days. The teacher Institute days, like the welcome that I got to the team, I was expecting, like, a nice welcome, but I felt like that first week I walked away, I’m like, I didn’t even do anything. Like, I didn’t even prove to these kids that they should like me and already they do. And so that was so nice.
I’ve heard you’re a Swiftie. What is your favorite Taylor Swift album and why? Okay, I’ve always said Speak Now. Lover competes a little bit for me, but Speak Now. Taylor and I are pretty close in age, so growing up, it was like the soundtrack to my high school experience. The memories that those songs bring back, mostly like me being in high school and being like, oh my God. Jumps Then Fall, which is actually on Fearless and not on Speak Now, I was like, I want this to happen to me.
What’s your go-to comfort food? Okay, they’re like the Brookside, dark chocolate-covered Acai Bowls. Oh, highly specific. I feel like anything covered in dark chocolate, like specifically, you can buy, like, a giant bag of them from Costco.
If you had a free day with no responsibilities, what would you do? I’d probably go for a run, start a new book, and only eat dessert.
What’s your favorite thing about being a teacher? My favorite thing is when you can tell a kid comes to your class and they don’t like history, and then at the end of the year, they say they actually really like this class.
What advice do you wish the world could hear? Listen and think before you act. If everyone paused and took a little time and considered a little bit more, the world would be a better place.
