Changes can be difficult, whether it’s a new house, or even a new job. One teacher in the district has endured a lot of changes in the past year, but has used them to her advantage.

Mrs. Breanna Grove (Faculty) graduated from Lock Haven University not even a year ago. She is the current gym teacher here at James Buchanan High School, but, even in college, many changes had occurred in her life.

“I originally went to Shippensburg for middle-level education, teaching math and science, but then I knew Lock Haven had physical education,” Grove said. “I never really thought of that as a career, until I heard of it and thought about it. So that’s whenever I went up to Lock Haven and pursued health and PE.”

After moving to Lock Haven, she declared a new major and began classes.

“[I took] your typical gen eds for the first year, and after that we had a lot of physical education classes.” Grove explained, “Which were specifically games, like tactical games: ultimate football, ultimate frisbee, and soccer, and then we also had net sports as another class, which is tennis, volleyball, pickleball, badminton.”

She not only has a degree in physical education, but is certified to teach Health.

“I also had a lot of health-related classes with my Health degree, so I’m technically certified to teach Health and Physical Education. I took Anatomy, Physiology, [and] Kinesiology,” Grove added.

After graduation, Grove began to look for a job. The first job opening she found was here at James Buchanan.

“They [the Heckmans] told me about Beegle retiring, so even before the position was posted, I applied for it. This was the very first position I applied for,” she said. “After that, I applied for like 10 other positions, and I ended up getting the job of my very first application.”

There was some slight competition, but in the end, Grove was hired.

“They actually interviewed my husband for the same position. We were interviewed on the same day, but then I got a call back,” Grove said.

She dealt with all the other logistics of getting hired, and was ready to start her new job, which consisted of the typical first day jitters.

“Nervous, very, very, nervous,” were the words Grove used to describe her feelings.

One of her major concerns was being accepted, but also respected.

“Being a young person, you want everyone to like you, but you also need to be professional, and be assertive when necessary, or you’re just going to get pushed over,” Grove described. “That’s definitely been a fun learning experience.”

Though she has been teaching for less than a semester, she already has goals for the future.

“My hope is to never be the same. I think whenever you repeat things every year, people get bored with it, first of all,” she reported. “Secondly, society changes, so I believe what you teach in the classroom should change too.”

Grove not only wants to make her class interesting, she also wants to create a bond with her students.

“I think being a teacher [that] it’s important to build relationships with your students and have them be comfortable enough to come and talk to you,” she said. ”If you can’t build that respect and persona with your students, then you’re really not going to be able to reach them like you could if you were able to talk to them one-on-one.”

She believes that changes are key to a successful class in today’s world.

“Just in education specifically, in the past, traditional education was very much, you need to ‘teach, teach, teach,’” Grove informed. “Whereas 21st-century education, which is what they push now, is about building relationships, being able to relate to your students, and just know more about them, and not necessarily just teaching them all the time, but having them teach you.”

The experiences Grove has gone through over the past few years are what shaped her into the person she is today, and shows that change is inevitable.