With all her fun adventures and fishy stories Herrmann is ready for anything. Sierra Herrmann is a new teacher in Highland’s Essential Elements (EE) program. She loves teaching and has great experience behind her.
Herrmann taught Kindergarten at Adelaide Elementary for a total of 10 years. She loved the ups and downs of mentoring and often babysitting these little ones.
Her favorite parts of the job were the moments when she saw the kids learning and progressing. These moments include when students of hers finally mastered being potty trained, writing their name, and all the other little “light bulb” experiences.
But she was excited to have a change.
“I was ready to switch things up but knew I wanted to stay with EE students because they’re my favorite,” Hermann said. “I accepted the job at Highland because I have heard it’s an amazing school.”
One of the most appealing aspects of teaching is having a summer full of adventures. Herrmann loves to spend time outdoors where she will go hiking and kayaking with her dog. She loves to bring her students out into nature, but sometimes they bring it back.
One day Herrmann took her class on a field trip to a fishing pond. They were learning about the fish and even were taught how to go fishing. There were lots of successes as multiple students were able to catch and reel in the fish.
When they were on the way back to school, Herrmann started to scrunch her nose as she noticed something was really stinky on the bus. But assuming that it might have just been a few kids who smelled bad, she didn’t give it too much thought.
Once they had arrived at school, the smell had only grown worse. The classroom was disgusting and smelled rancid to everyone who was nearby. Herrmann decided to investigate the problem.
“It turns out that one of my students had snuck back a giant trout in her hoodie pocket! It was so disgusting and smelled so bad, but she refused to get rid of it,” Herrmann said.
The student was stubborn and refused to part with the fish and ended up taking it home with her.
The fish is not the only animals that Herrmann has hosted in her classroom.
Herrmann’s wiener dog, Holly, has traditionally been a special guest in her class around Halloween. After reading the beloved children’s book Hallo-wiener, Holly comes into the class dressed in the classic hot dog costume, with her long body as the wiener. This activity has been a favorite for Herrmann to introduce her students to Holly.
With all her fishy stories paving her way to Highland, what was just as important is the way she found what she loved through education and experience.
She continued her studies at Brigham Young University (BYU) and got a bachelor’s in severe special education and then went on to get a master’s at the University of Utah. She also revealed to being a Utah fan through and through.
Herrmann worked at the Alpine School District as an aide to students with autism and soon discovered that this is what she wanted to do. She chose this internship mostly because it worked with her BYU and college life schedule. Little did she know that through this experience she would find her passion.
Herrmann hopes to encourage more students to become peer tutors while she teaches at Highland. Currently there are 80 students signed up to be peer tutors this year. Her goal is that these students will talk to their friends about how fun these experiences can be.
“I hope to recruit more peer tutors and hopefully inspire some to become special education teachers,” Herrmann said.
