For this week’s Teacher Feature, we spoke with ELA teacher Ms. Christen Braun.
What’s the worst attempt at cheating that you’ve seen?
A: I will have kids blatantly hand each other work in front of my face and copy it down, then they play dumb when I know that they’re cheating. I think that’s the worst, when it literally happens in front of your face.
What is the first car you bought?
The first car I bought was a Honda CR V. It was eye-opening when you have car payments and insurance payments, and it’s a lot.
If you have a free night to yourself with no responsibilities, what are you doing?
Honestly, probably watch Jeopardy, I know that sounds generic, and bust into some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Yeah, that’s probably what I’m doing.
What is your favorite book that you teach in your class?
Frankenstein, which I’m sure you might disagree with. I like it, I know it’s challenging but I think it’s so rewarding. There’s so many avenues you can focus on with the teaching end of it. And a lot of times kids come up with ideas or insights that I hadn’t thought out and that’s always interesting.
What would your last meal be, if you were on death row?
Well the Ben and Jerry’s would come back into play. I’m gonna go with pizza. Pizza, a cold Coke, and some Ben and Jerry’s. But I hope to never be on death row.
What is your favorite student slang, and could you use it in a sentence?
None of it, absolutely none of it. I know that makes me sound like an old person, but I have no answer for that one.
What’s the most rewarding topic to teach in your class?
Honestly, it kind of depends on the year, what’s going on in the world, and the dynamic of the class. Because sometimes I’ll have students who really open up on things and share personal experiences and I can really learn a lot from that. If we take the personal out of it, probably teaching Night and we do a good bit of interviews from the Rownadan genocide, just pulling in a more contemporary situation from a totally different part of the world and I find that rewarding.
If you could live somewhere that’s not Pittsburgh, where would you live?
I love the beach. Yeah probably on the water somewhere, not where it’s super hot year round, that grosses me out. Maybe North Carolina on the water, yeah.
What is your most irresponsible purchase you’ve made?
Oh where to begin. I’m usually pretty responsible with stuff like that. The first time I went to Africa was in 2019. The only reason I went was because I saw a documentary on Nat Geo and I was like “That really cool” and literally that night I was starting to make plans. Though, it ended up being so worth it, but at the moment it was really stupid. But yeah I saw gorillas on a cool tv show. I’m gonna go over and check them out, like that’s stupid. But it ended up working out.
Which author’s works do you enjoy the most?
Ernest Gaines, he’s an African American author who I just actually came to find in the past three years when I read three of his novels and the perspective is something that was eye-opening to me as a white woman, a white privileged women living in this country getting insight from someone who lived a few decades back. But it’s just interesting to read about a black man who probably faced oppression but still tried to overcome it.
What made you want to be an English teacher?
Oh my gosh it’s the one job I thought I would never have. My senior year in college was when, this is gonna make me sound like I’m ninety-four, was when September 11th happened and I feel like it kind of rerouted my thinking because originally I wanted to go into the business end of musical theater. After 9/11 a lot of that stuff shut down for a while so that year I was choreographing a high school musical and in working with those high school students I thought that that was what I wanted to do. I thought I liked these kids. They’re fun, they’re eager, I like this age group, you can joke around with them. So yeah all because of a high school musical.
