Credit to Madalyn Bridgewater

Ashley Seiss and student in her freshmen English one class talk about the curriculum.

At 1:28 p.m., the bell for the start of seventh hour rings. It is the last class period before the weekend. Knowing this, Ashely Seiss gives her English class a short assignment and the entire class period to work on it. The class begins and the students get to work on their assignments. As the period continues, students start finishing their work and walk up to Seiss to talk.

Midway through this time, junior Aiyla Neals walks up to the desk and Seiss asks Neals how she was doing. Yesterday, Neals and her family had to put their dog down. “So, then we had to put him down,” Neals says. “And I cried all day. I wasn’t here yesterday because I needed a mental health day.”

“That makes sense,” Seiss replies. “How are you feeling today?”

“Better, I went to Red Robin yesterday and I was much better.”

Conversations like this are normal for Seiss, whether they take place during class or in the hall during passing
periods.

“I think, anecdotally, kids know that I am here for them,” Seiss said. “And I support them, and I love them, and I believe in them and I want the best for them. And, if nobody in their life cares about them, at least I do.” Seiss strives to create relationships with all of her students. These relationships may start from her just being the student’s teacher, but it sometimes morphs into more.

“Our relationship is good,” sophomore Gabriela Hatschbach said. “We talk a lot, it’s like we’re friends.”

According to Seiss, her relationships with them are aided by the energy that she gives off to her students. Which for her, includes frequent check-ins with her students, being a person that they can talk to and having everything that they may need.

“I’m always like ‘big mom energy’,” Seiss said. “I think it’s ‘big parent’ energy. It’s very much taken care of, check in. I have a whole drawer that has band aids and sanitary items for female students. I have gum or whatever and kids know that they can come to me and I’ll try my best to make it happen, you know, even if it’s the small stuff. I try really hard to get to know my kids on a personal level and show up. I’ll go to their sporting events.”

The added effort of knowing her students on a personal level is what sets her apart from her peers. It also makes students feel more comfortable talking with her when they have problems.

“One time I was having a rough time in life and I was talking to her and she was very helpful and understanding,” junior Tatem Chrisner said. “She made me feel a lot better.”

When forming these relationships, Seiss also hopes to make her class more tolerable as many students don’t like English or often struggle with curtain concepts.

“I feel like by the time kids come to high school, they have a preconceived notion of how they feel about English as a subject,” Seiss said. “They either love it or they really hate it. And so I like to push back on that a little bit. Even if I can shift the barometer 1% and they hate English 1% less, I feel like I’ve done a good job, or if they feel more supported.”

A part of the relationship for Seiss is making sure her students feel supported. She believes that if kids don’t feel supported then they can’t learn. This for her means putting in extra effort to create a supportive and welcoming environment.

“When we talk about what it means to create a welcoming environment I think fundamentally it comes down to the tone you set and the way you carry yourself and the way you interact and engage with the students,” Seiss said. “And that’s one of those things that can’t be taught. We can be taught how to do lesson plans or all this stuff, but to be able to build relationships authentically, it’s not a skill that can be explicitly taught. You either know it or you don’t know how to do it, and I’m really good at it.”