Anthony MS teachers shares passion for science with students

ANTHONY, Texas (KTSM) – An Anthony Middle School teacher’s love for science paved her way back to her family’s professional roots.

Priscilla Terrazas is an Anthony Middle School science teacher whose career started 16 years ago.

Before getting into teaching, Terrazas wanted to be an epidemiologist and wanted to serve in public health. She has a bachelor’s degree in public health and a master’s degree in education for science instruction.

Terrazas said she comes from a family of educators. Her mom is a pre-K teacher and one of the reasons why she got into teaching.

“At first, I would see her come home really late and I was like, ‘Why is she doing this?’ And then when I started my health science journey, part of it was having to go to schools and educate children. One of them we were doing hand washing, so we went to this school, and I asked my mom to help me with my lesson. I realized how cute the kids were because they would get really excited, and their faces would light up. That’s when I understood why mom did it. That’s when I wanted to give it a try,” Terrazas said.

Terrazas said she used to teach at a “bigger district” but when she saw that there was an opening in Anthony, she decided to apply since it’s her community and her home.

“I started off as a substitute, just to kind of figure out what I wanted to do, and I liked middle school a lot. So, I went into middle school and then when I got my master’s degree I went as an instructional coach for elementary school and I taught science. I showed other teachers how to teach science in the classroom for five years until there was an opening in Anthony,” Terrazas said.

Terrazas said that she felt very grateful for the opportunity to teach middle school again because she missed teaching kids in her community.

“For me it’s not just my job. It’s seeing it as a bigger picture. I really do put a lot into it because I know it’s going to benefit our community, not just my classroom but my community in general,” Terrazas said.

KTSM spoke with Adriana Candelaria, Anthony ISD’s communications/safety coordinator, who said that Terrazas’ initiative has been a great addition to the district.

“Terrazas has taken a lot of initiatives in starting programs that really advance the students. Some of them including robotics, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activities and she’s also going to start as the eSports coach. She really takes these initiatives with nobody telling her to do it and she brings these opportunities to Anthony,” Candelaria said.

Terrazas has been doing several projects within the district such as: robotics in both middle school and high school; a Chess Club during lunch where the kids play and recently competed in Canutillo; STEM activities where she’s encouraging girls to get into the field; and most recently eSports.

“I worked with the high school eSports teacher to see if we could do something for the middle school to know if there’s an interest and he agreed. We set up a Rocket League tournament and we had almost 20 kids competing,” Terrazas said.

Terrazas mentioned how kids are interested in eSports and how it can shape their future.

She said that one of their high-school students got a scholarship at New Mexico State University (NMSU) for eSports.

Next year, Terrazas said eSports will be implemented in middle school and is hoping for the district to promote that one as well.

When talking about the future generation of educators, Terrazas gave the following advise:

“Whatever passion you bring into the classroom, it’s something that kids embrace. Whether it’s their thing or not, they like to experiment. That’s kind of the thing with science too. I just want them to be exposed to it and see if this is something that they like. If it is something that they like, they can pursue later on,” Terrazas said.

Terrazas said one of her goals working in Anthony is trying to get girls into STEM.

“It kind of started off in robotics where I had one girl in the team, and it was all boys. It started there and then I realized that as we went into these competitions there really was no girls and no girl coaches. I realized we need to recruit more girls and that’s been one of the things that I’ve been working on, trying to get girls into STEM and trying to make them stay. I want to be a role model because I really want them to know that they can do it,” Terrazas said.

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