Growing up, Math Teacher Rachel Fisher loved math and science but never thought that those two passions would lead to a career as an engineer, or her later becoming a teacher. Fisher was an engineer for 10 years and worked on various projects before deciding to switch to teaching three years ago and work at South.
Fisher earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Material Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she said. While completing her M.S. (Master of Science), Fisher worked on a project for the U.S. Navy researching a material that converts mechanical stress into electrical charge and vice versa. Fisher also worked as a contractor for Science Applications International Corporation, a private company that collaborated with the Department of Defense (DOD), Fisher said. Fisher worked on operational testing for all kinds of government systems, including lightweight torpedoes and radiation detectors for the Department of Homeland Security, she explained.
Despite her success in engineering, Fisher discovered her love for teaching through tutoring math and science at her home, she said. This experience inspired her to transition to becoming a full-time tutor and later return to school to gain her teaching license, Fisher explained.
“All [of] those years working with students really impacted me enough to decide that I wanted to do it as a second career,” Fisher said.
Fisher incorporates problem-solving skills she learned as an engineer into her curriculum, she said. These skills are essential to both teaching and engineering, especially when students do not know where to start or what to ask, Fisher said. Teaching Honors Pre-Calculus, Algebra I, Algebra I with language acquisition for English learners, and Algebra Studies with language acquisition, Fisher also applies the real world to her lessons to make them more relatable, Philip Gartner, Instructional Supervisor of Mathematics, said.
“[Fisher] is dedicated to her students, [is] a collaborative professional, [and] loves to learn and grow,” Gartner said. “She is willing to take on new challenges, is accustomed to hard work, and likes to achieve at high levels.”
While Honors Pre-Calculus is a difficult class, Fisher’s teaching style makes a big difference, sophomore Campbell Johnson said. Fisher explains difficult math problems by working through them step by step, while still keeping students challenged, Johnson said. For example, Fisher used a video of a football kicker to demonstrate how velocity and parabolas appear in real-life scenarios, Johnson explained.
“My favorite part of her class is when we do challenging warm-ups and collaborate with all the people around us,” Johnson said.
Regardless of having natural abilities in science and math, the success in these fields comes from the perseverance she has learned, Fisher said.
Fisher’s children are around the same age as her students, she said. Due to this, working with high schoolers gives Fisher a unique perspective on teenagers that she may not have had if she had started teaching earlier in life, she added. Drawing from her engineering background, Fisher sees strong parallels between both careers—especially in how they value persistence and curiosity.
“I think the biggest similarity within the two fields is the respect for exploration and perseverance,” Fisher said. “Engineers are really used to asking questions, trying new things, and getting it wrong many times before trying again. These are the type of things are exactly what I hope my students will learn to do too.”
