Before the first bell rings, she is already in her office planning the day for her first period class. Worrying and trying not to mess anything up. Three months into her new job, East Leyden’s new sophomore physical education teacher, Ms. Deplaris is still trying to manage everything so it is perfect, so she can make a good first impression on teaching. From envisioning little kids running around and playing on the playground to high school students meeting her at eyeline, she finds herself pursuing her career into a new opening of becoming a high school physical education teacher.
Ms. Deplaris, is a new sophomore physical education teacher at East Leyden High school, she started her job three months ago. Everyday before classes begin, she carefully plans her lessons so everything runs smoothly. Ms. Deplaris balances her hard faced challenges of a new teaching career with her passion for helping students grow physically and having them involved. Through hard work and many challenges, Ms. Deplaris is working to make a huge impact on her new career and the East Leyden community.
Ms. Deplaris always had a passion for teaching and physical education. She always was involved in some type of fitness. She mentioned in her interview, “I always wanted to be a teacher. Growing up I loved teaching and I loved school, I also loved fitness and I always had a passion for physical training.” Originally, Ms. Deplaris had other plans about her career. She always loved kids, and had a huge passion for teaching. This made her want to become an elementary school teacher. During the interview, Ms. Deplaris said, “I originally wanted to be an elementary teacher. And for a little while I went off the teaching path. I always thought I wanted to do physical therapy, something in the medical field.” Ms Deplaris was getting into her teaching career slowly and wanted to explore some schools she can apply to since she chose to go off of her physical training path. She ended up applying to a couple other schools which were Hinsdale South, two of the Plainfield Highschools, and of course, East Leyden. Sadly she didn’t hear back from any of the other schools except for Leyden. She actually had a good background on Leyden already since she had connections from there that helped her figure out more on her career. She mentioned that, “One of my friends told me about a P.E program at school that she was at, and I was like “that sounds perfect”, It’s exactly what I wanted to do. It kind of just all aligned. But it did take me time to realize that this is what I wanted to do to pursue my career in physical education.” When Ms. Deplaris started pursuing her gym teacher career in Leyden, she realized how much coaching opportunities there are in the program.
It all made it easier for her since she was always in some type of sport growing up, so when she found out Leyden had many coaching opportunities she took that chance to strike at it and she was interested in the girls water polo program. She stated in her interview that, “ I also liked the new coaching opportunities here, especially in the physical education department. I also have a new opportunity this spring to coach girls water polo especially because swimming has always been a big part of my life.” Ms. Deplaris was very excited about this because swimming was always a huge part of her life. Ms. Deplaris always knew she wanted to pursue a teaching career that allowed her to inspire and motivate students through physical education. From an early age, she found her passion in teamwork with other P.E teachers and helping others reach her and their goals, which eventually helped her choose on what she wanted to teach. “I’ve always believed that movement builds confidence, and I wanted to be the kind of teacher that helps students find that confidence.”
This whole career journey with Ms. Deplaris has been a whole roller coaster since her whole plan was originally to become an elementary school but now she’s a high school gym teacher and a girls water polo coach. She said, “My whole journey was so unexpected since my original plan was going towards teaching elementary kids. If it wasn’t for my friend that recommended that I should try an athletic program, I don’t think I would be teaching right now but I don’t regret a single second of it.” This is how Ms. Deplaris’ career changed throughout her very first months of teaching. It was quite a challenging experience but she’s very grateful she ended up where she is today, a physical education teacher, here at East Leyden High school.
