As part of a series, The Branford Buzz is asking teachers and students “Five Questions with…” to help the BHS community get to know one another and share ideas. This week’s feature is science teacher Victoria Clime. She has been teaching at Branford High for 18 years, with a great curiosity about the way the human body works, the things that affect in nature as well as the impact that humans can have on the ecosystem led her to become a teacher.
What do you think is something that characterizes BHS?
“Individual identity and the way that everyone who comes here can find their own little home in the school, a place where they can be themselves.” Mrs. Climie tells us that the way each student finds her own place where he feels comfortable at school is something that characterizes BHS. “At school they are allowed to experiment and discover themselves without being judged,” she said.
Why did you decide to become a teacher?
“I always liked working with people, I always liked being able to work with adolescents in my previous job. I always had to work with the public. I was not always a teacher but I always liked teaching about the ecosystem and its conservation. I think it is quite important and inspiring.”
What do you think should be changed or improved about the school?
“We have quite a few policies that changed this year, after COVID things changed too much at the school, many of the policies that they used before were lost. So we had to think about how to adapt the policies to this change. An example of this was the breakfast schedule. In my opinion, it should be changed, I know that some people come a little late to school or sometimes the buses are late and the students do not have the opportunity to have breakfast, which means that they are not focused on class and leave it to have breakfast, I think that if breakfast were open during hive or have a pre-packaged breakfast so that students can take it to hive.” Mrs. Climie also told us her opinion about the cell phone policy. “I agree one hundred percent with this policy, one of the biggest problems we had when we returned to face-to-face classes were the telephones, personally I cannot take my attention off my telephone when I hear a notification then I can’t require my students to do it, it would be unfair to expect this when I can’t do it myself, then I agree to this policy.” To conclude Mrs. Climie mentions how this affects the entire BHS community “change has been very difficult for everyone but at the same time society is changing all the time and we must adapt.”
What has been your greatest achievement?
“I’m not sure what my biggest achievement is, I don’t know what I’m supposed to say I think the popular response would be to say my children.” said Mrs. Climie with a laugh. “I also think that what I am probably most proud of is the fact that I became a teacher. I had two other professions before I became a teacher and I was avoiding trying something that could be good for me.”
What has been your biggest challenge during your time at college/work?
“Time management, trying to achieve everything to the best of my ability and not forgetting anything. Over time I learned that you can’t always finish everything perfectly and at other times it is simply impossible your schedule can be very difficult and you have too many things that you know that you’re not going to finish everything perfectly so you just have to finish it the best you can and you have to be okay with it and as long as you’re sure you did the best you could. Not everything has to be perfect all the time.”
