She sits cross-legged, hands folded and together as if she were in an important business meeting and having an argument with her peers. Her hair is in a high ponytail. Having a smile on her face like she always does and is in a Jolly mood. English teacher for Co.Lab, Brenda Kaiden, who has worked at Leyden for 20 years, always knew what she wanted to do as a career from a young age.

“So I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. For a while, I didn’t know if I wanted to teach little kids or high school or junior high and then I was a day camp counselor, and I quickly learned I wanted to teach high school students” While Kaiden knew that she wanted to be a teacher, she didn’t know what subject to teach until she met her English teacher from East Leyden which inspired her to head the English route. “I’m going to do high school, I don’t know what I want to teach. And then in high school, I figured out I wanted to teach high school. I want to teach high school English. I had a cool teacher and actually, Mr. Giordano had the same teacher as I did. Ms. French. She was the coolest English teacher, so I think she inspired me to be a high school English teacher.” Kaiden states.

Kaiden has attended Triton College, and Illinois State University, both of which she has attended for two years, and Northeastern Illinois University for six for her associate degree, “When I graduated high school, I went to Triton for two years, got my associate’s degree, and then I went to Illinois State for two years. I loved it. It was a way for me to grow up as a, you know, young person. And it was a great experience. I think I needed that to become a better adult, you know, I couldn’t stay at home my whole life, and go to school at home. I needed to go away even if it was just for the two years that I went.” She then goes on to mention how it took her a while to get her associate degree because of having to multitask at school and work. “My master’s degree was through Northeastern and it took me so long because I coached the Leydenettes dance team, and that season is summer, fall, and, winter. So having practice and then going to class at night was a lot, so I tried to space out classes. So that’s why it took me so long.”

Kaiden talks about her experience with Leyden and why she switched over to teach Co.Lab. “ English three, it’s American literature. So I don’t have the history behind all the speeches and different pieces of literature I need to teach. So I don’t know if I should take a history class. I have enough to give. So it works out great that now I get to teach what Lange so anything that I do, he can provide historical background, like when you learned religions last year, right? I can do my stuff so that he can provide the social studies perspective. She also mentions a habit she faces that she’s improving on and something she likes when it comes to Leyden. “A big thing is sometimes, I’ll bring school home and not in a bad way. Just like, Okay, let me finish grading. You know, I don’t do that as much anymore. I’m trying not to, but I’m managing my time when my kids are literally on the floor. Just give mommy a minute. But I’m getting better at that after 20 years” and “Leyden is great. at other schools, for example, teachers have to turn in Lesson plans every week, or you have to be on the same page with everybody else. They’re good at allowing us freedom, which I think a lot of us need to do what we learned to teach students. So the freedom aspect is amazing.”

As Kaiden reaches her 20th year here at West Leyden, she hopes to get rid of her bad habits and to continue teaching in a healthy manner.