Ms. Jenny LaVigne, one of the classiest teachers at Chelsea High, is retiring this year as a reading specialist and English language arts teacher. What makes LaVigne still vibrant after many years is her honesty with students. I asked her how she started teaching at Chelsea and got a frank response. “When I was young I tried to be a teacher, and I didn’t know what I was doing,” said LaVigne, “so I had a couple other careers and then came back to teaching in Chelsea 16 years ago.”
You can also get a sense of the vitality and dedication LaVigne has brought to her students from what she likes most about teaching. “Every day is different, and obviously I like the relationships that I get to have with so many different people. But the job itself, what I like the most, is that I always have another chance to do it better the next time.”
Although LaVigne said it sounds cliché, what she likes most about Chelsea High is its diversity. “We have people here from all over the world. It’s a very unique situation.”
While LaVigne loves working at the high school, her start here was bittersweet. For her first year in Chelsea, LaVigne was at the middle school, but she was one of eight reading teachers laid off at the end of the year due to huge budget problems. During the summer, she was fortunate to be the one reading teacher hired by the high school. On her first day of school at the old Chelsea High School, LaVigne saw all the teachers welcoming each other back with hugs and she didn’t know anybody. “I went down to my room I was assigned to, I started cleaning my room and then sat down on the floor and cried.”
LaVigne has some down to earth plans for what she will do after closing out her Chelsea teaching career. “I’m going to clean my house, get a dog, read a lot of books that I’ve never had time to read, and do some traveling.”
But LaVigne still wants to make connecting with youth a part of her life. ‘’I’ll find a way to do something part-time with kids,” she said, “because I know I’m going to miss working with students.”