Ms. Neubauer is a special education teacher who has been teaching for 17 years and has taught for 15 years at Wilde Lake High School. However, Ms. Neubauer is not new to Wilde Lake High School. She’s back! After parting ways for some time while teaching at Oakland Mills High School, where she graduated from, she has made her return to the school of Ohana. Just spending no more than 20 minutes with Ms. Neubauer, I could feel how strongly she feels about her job. Ms. Neubauer has a comfortable presence that relays to her students.
Through her years of school, Ms. Neubauer’s fourth-grade teacher inspired her to be a teacher. During her college years, she came to the conclusion that she wanted to be an elementary school teacher, but not just any teacher. She wanted to be a special education teacher to help children feel comfortable and safe in her classroom. However, due to the county not having any open positions, Ms. Neubauer ended up teaching at Wilde Lake. Throughout the years, Ms. Neubauer has met some of the closest people she considers family.
Ms. Neubauer explained that her home is somewhere where she can relax and play video games. She also mentioned that Wilde Lake is kind of a second home to her. Ms. Neubauer said, “People can feel like a home rather than just a place to rest your head and lay easy. Every school, every job has its ups and downs, and it became, you know, a lot of people, a lot of my tribe, my village, whatever you want to call it. My closest people are here.”
Ms. Neubauer relates to her subject very strongly and cares about her position as a special education teacher. She believes her job is to provide appropriate access to learning materials – accessible and broken down to each student’s level.
When Ms. Neubauer’s classroom is feeling down or gloomy, she uplifts her classroom with her amazing dance moves and humming skills. If those surprises don’t bring the class’s mood up, she also takes a few minutes to let everyone wind down and recuperate.
Some of Ms. Neubauer’s favorite things are the Washington spirit, which she loves to talk about. She also loves cats. She has two cats: Simon and Morgan. In fact, if she could be an animal, Ms. Neubauer would want to be a cat living in luxury. She loves how lazy they are and how free-spirited they are.
Ms. Neubauer believes that creating a good bond and relationship with her students creates a great learning environment. Having a balanced relationship between a teacher and student can improve comfort and reassurance for a student. At the beginning of each school year, she normally makes vanity license plates. She says she encourages her students to include things they are into and interested in. That is very important because some students feel as though they cannot express themselves and instead put on a school persona.
