Everyday is an experiment in Haylie Marquadt’s science class! Ms. Marquardt has been at Heatly since the beginning of September and teaches science to secondary students. For her undergraduate studies, Ms. Marquardt attended SUNY Cortland where she graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in Adolescent Education for Earth Science. She then continued her education at SUNY Albany, where she earned a master’s degree in Curriculum Development and Instructional Technologies in 2020.
For her student teaching requirements, Ms. Marquardt had the opportunity to teach in several school districts across New York State, including Kingston, Rochester, Syracuse and the Finger Lakes Region. This allowed her to gain insight into the various student populations in New York State and work with a wide variety of students. For the past five years, she has been teaching in various schools throughout the Capital Region.
While Ms. Marquardt has only been teaching for a short period of time, she enjoys inspiring students with science and showing them the correlation between what they learn in the classroom to their daily lives. According to Ms. Marquardt, the best part about being a teacher is “being able to watch students grow as individuals and being able to make a positive impact on their lives.” She goes on to say she also enjoys when her students teach her how to become a better teacher.
Starting a new job can be intimidating, however, Ms. Marquardt has received a lot of useful advice when it comes to teaching. “Build on your strengths as a person and find a community that fits in with you and thrives with those strengths,” said Ms. Marquardt.
When she’s not teaching at Heatly, Ms. Marquardt can be found spending time with the two organizations she’s currently involved with: the Geological Society of America and the Geological Society of Maine. A fun fact about Ms. Marquardt is that she worked in the alarm industry from the age of 14 to 29. Her experience working in the alarm industry prepared her for many situations that she has encountered as an educator. She also goes to Maine every summer, which is where most of her rock collection comes from.