Inside SFPS
Inside SFPS
Episode 5: Bring Your Best Self to the Table (feat. Hope Cahill)
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On this episode of Inside SFPS, we welcome Mrs. Hope Cahill! Mrs. Cahill is a 6th and 7th-grade science teacher at El Dorado Community School. We talked about where she is from, how she got to Santa Fe, her transition from teaching English to Science, and of course much more!
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Welcome back to Inside SFPS. My name is Cody Donarski, Public Information Officer for Santa Fe Public Schools. And today my guest is Miss Hope Kay Hill, teacher at El Dorado Community School. Ms. Kay Hill, how are you today?
SPEAKER_00I'm good. How are you?
SPEAKER_01Good. I'm very excited about this interview. We haven't spoken much before today, but yesterday you had emailed me and I found out we have a lot more in common than we may have realized. We come from a similar area and we know a lot of very similar places. So I'm very excited for this interview. So to start, talk a little bit about where you're from. I know you you you spent your middle and high school years in in upstate or western New York. Um, but where are you originally from?
SPEAKER_00I was born in Connecticut, um, Wallingford, Connecticut, actually. Um, and then eventually um spent time in Clinton, Connecticut with my dad. That's where he lives. And it was my mom who moved up to upstate New York, and my dad stayed in Connecticut, and I would split my year between the two locations.
SPEAKER_01So you were in Avon, New York, which is a small kind of farming community outside of Rochester. That's correct. How did that kind of shape you into a student and kind of moving on to the next level?
SPEAKER_00You know, when we first moved to New York, we actually lived in Brighton, which is a suburb of Rochester, so a little bit more of an urban-ish area. And my mother moved us out to Avon because of the reputation the school had. Um, my brother has a specific learning disability, and they were going to be able to meet his needs a little bit better out there. It was a K through 12 campus. So the younger grades were housed in one building. Um, I think that was only like kindergarten through second grade. So third through 12th grade was all in another building together. So um part of what I think that did is gave me a sense of the responsibility, right, of older children and being role models for younger children.
SPEAKER_01So just a little bit closer. Okay. Just ducking out a little bit. Um so after you spent your middle and high school years, you went to SUNY Geneseo, which was it's not too far from there, right?
SPEAKER_00No, it was actually only maybe 15 to 20 minutes away from where I went to high school. So another small community community.
SPEAKER_01My cousin goes to Geneseo.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01I'm a fellow SUNY graduate. I went to SUNY Binghamton or Binghamton University as they like to be called. They don't want to be known as a SUNY for whatever reason. It's funny. When you were at Geneseo, what was your major? What did you really focus your studies on?
SPEAKER_00Um I earned a BA and um my focus was English, and I had with uh secondary education certification. I chose Geneseo because it was of its reputation as a teaching college. At one point and back in its history, it was a normal school. That's where people went to learn to be teachers. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then from Geneseo, that's a long way from Santa Fe, New Mexico. How did you get from Geneseo in the middle of New York or Midwest part of New York all the way out to Santa Fe, New Mexico?
SPEAKER_00I met my husband, or now husband, I should say, in my sophomore year of college at Geneseo. And when we graduated, um, he had visited New Mexico, I think, when he was 16 for the first time. And he fell in love. Actually, he um stayed with family that lived here in El Dorado, actually. And he asked if I would be game to come on out, and I said sure, despite never having been further west than Ohio and having absolutely no idea what to expect other than the reputation I already knew of Santa Fe as an art community.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I I know that feeling we had talked about this. I I was the same way. I the furthest west I'd ever been was Ohio until I moved to New Mexico. And that drive through, you know, when New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas. Right. It it's you learn a lot, especially being from where we are in New York, that the hills and the trees and the everything, the the greenery is just not the same throughout the country. Especially once you get kind of past Kansas City, right? It becomes flat. It becomes the plains. The plains is what really shocked me at first. And then you start realizing the green really does go away. And that was the thing my dad always told me was you're gonna miss the green, you're gonna miss the green, you're gonna miss the green.
SPEAKER_00I totally don't.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, neither do I. Not at all. I I like the dirt, I like the I like the the neutral earth tones. Uh it's very aesthetically pleasing in my brain.
SPEAKER_00I think there is so much more color in our landscape here than there is back east. All it is is shades of green and maybe a glimpse of the blue sky if you're lucky.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, if the if the clouds aren't in and out in a day. Yeah. Um, and and even looking from your classroom, we can see mountains hundreds of miles away.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we have the Jemez, we have the Sandias, right? We can see Mount Taylor on a good day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and and you don't get that in New York. I mean, you're lucky to see 10 miles past where you're at because the trees just kind of the best word that you had said was kind of claustrophobic. They're just right on top of you. And, you know, you're driving through these tunnels of trees, and you don't you're you're kind of just it's you and on the road, and there's nothing that you can see. Um, so it's it's a very different landscape, and I totally understand kind of that difference that you know we've gone through.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that claustrophobia extends not just to the trees, right? It's not just the landscapes, it's the houses, it's the people, it's like everything is so close.
SPEAKER_01Everything was built so close to one another, and they were just trying to cram everyone in there when they came off the boats into Ellis Island, kind of moving west in New York, kind of that rust belt, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland area. They just jammed everyone in as as quick as they could and as close as they could. Yeah. With once you moved out here, is that when you got your first teaching job?
SPEAKER_00It is. So I was 21, I think, when we moved out here. Um, and I got my first teaching job at Capshaw Middle School. We came out here with nothing then other than a place to stay for a couple of weeks, but no jobs, no apartment, hard hardly any furniture.
SPEAKER_01Um how scary was that? Because at least when I moved out here, I had a job. My my wife didn't have a job at the time, but I at least I knew that I had a job. How scary was that?
SPEAKER_00It was a little nerve-wracking, actually. I was um I was shocked actually at how quickly I was able to get hired. And it took a little bit longer for my husband to find his niche. He was originally coming out here to get a Forest Service job, um, but ended up um in a retail position. Um, and things have spun out from there in really positive ways for us. But uh it was a little nerve-wracking.
SPEAKER_01So you finally landed that job. It was an English job to start, right? Yep. How long did were you in that the the English teacher?
SPEAKER_00So I was at CAPSHA for four years. For three of those, I was in a language arts position, and for one of them, I was um a creative writing teacher. So on the specials team of teachers.
SPEAKER_01So And then how did you end up in science? Because that's where you're at now, that's where you know things have kind of grown f for you. How did you end up in the sciences if your degree's in English and and your first teaching position was in English?
SPEAKER_00So um I left Capshaw when I had my first son, Rowan, and initially it was supposed to just be a year, and somehow a year turned into eight. Time flies. Yeah, right. Um, I had um my second son three years after that. During that time, I had a couple other kiddos that I was taking care of, um, also teachers' kids that were just kind of there for companionship for my children. Ended up working as a professional seamstress for a while. Um and then when my son, my oldest, was in sixth grade, his um science teacher was switching positions mid-year, and they asked if I would be willing to step in as a long-term substitute because at that point, I think I had been substituting for three or four years, I'm not sure how long, almost exclusively out here in El Dorado. So I was familiar to the students, I was familiar with the school and the administration. And I said, sure. Um, I knew that I was willing to put my all into the position. And actually, that group of kiddos, I think I even remember saying to my husband at one point in time that if any group of kids could pull me back into the classroom, it would be them. Um, they were just really lovely. And I had spent a lot of time with them in fifth grade for substitute teaching.
SPEAKER_01That that's so touching. Then how did that kind of that science grow in you? Because you could have probably, you know, done that year in science, kind of got back into the full-time teaching, and then probably migrated your way back to English. What kind of kept you in the sciences?
SPEAKER_00That first year, the um science that I was teaching was earth science. And my husband and I had spent the entire time since we had moved out here exploring the entire state. Um, we would go and we would take the boys once we had them um everywhere. So dinosaur footprints, right, in the northeast corner, down into the Permian Basin, Carlsbad Caverns, City of Rocks. Um, and we live in such an amazing geological state. Um that like it just felt like such a blessing to teach earth science in New Mexico, right? With our volcanoes and our rift valley and just all the landforms that we have around here.
SPEAKER_01I I will argue with anyone. I'll go, I'll, you know, it'll be the hill that I die on. That the Rocky Mountain region of the US is the most beautiful and scenic, and there's just so many natural wonders in this area that sure, you know, the East Coast has the ocean, the west coast has the ocean, and you get the mountains and you know, Death Valley and and whatever. But as far as through New Mexico, white sands, like you said, Carlsbad, Bistie Bad Lands, Monument Valley in in southern Utah, uh, Grand Canyon in Arizona, and I'm sure I'm I know there's more. You can just go on and on. Yeah, there's just there's so many iconic, oh, um, Havasu in in Arizona. There's just so many beautiful natural wonders in the this Rocky Mountain region that it really is a blessing to be here, especially when it comes to you know the earth sciences, because when I was learning earth sciences, you know, we didn't have the same luxury to be able to go outside or to take these field trips to some of these.
SPEAKER_00You look at our windows. Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's a super volcano over there, right?
SPEAKER_01The three of them, the three sisters in Albuquerque. Right. Um so it I don't know if kids really know how wonderful it is to be here. And I think the only reason that I know, and and you probably know as well, is where we're from. It's you want to study trees, you want to look at some rocks and go down to a creek, and that's all you really had. You don't have these volcanoes, you don't have these m mountains, and our mountains are just big hills, just big hills. Right. Um, so I I I think it it's such a I kind of get speechless thinking about it because it's so vast and words really don't do it justice.
SPEAKER_00No, I mean I see the same views all the time and they touch me constantly. The Galisteo Basin, right? Just going over that hill, right? And down into the Lamy area. We hike out there almost every weekend, and it's the same trails over and over again, and I am continuously in awe of it. Right? Like you have to stop and pause and take it in.
SPEAKER_01Even for me, when I look at the sandias every day, I I I said it probably last weekend. I turned to my wife and I was like, looking at the mountains never gets old. Or when you're driving down 40 west and you see the the volcanoes out and the sun setting behind them, the it never gets old. Never once have I ever been like, oh, there's the volcanoes. Like I still get excited to tell people about it. And I've been here for four years, and I still get excited to tell people those are volcanoes, and they they they erupted 10,000 plus years ago, and this is lava rock. And be careful, lava rock is sharp. And even um over in Grants, that Mount Taylor, I I flew over it when I was working at KOAT and we were flying over 40, and you see the lava, and they just built I-40 on top of the lava. So you see it coming down the hill under I-40. I-40 is built right on top of it, and then it goes into um, I can't remember that it's a national monument over there. I'm totally blanking. Malpai. El Malpais. Yes, or Malpais, yeah. Um, it it just I I can't get enough, and I think And I get to give that to my students, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's why I fell in love with teaching science, right? Like I get to give that to them. Yeah. Because even though they live here, they don't always know what those features are or what it means or the geological story behind it.
SPEAKER_01So I mean, they get to give it to them. And they get to see it and it's tangible and they can say, Oh yeah, over an hour away, it's there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like I didn't even know volcanoes were real until I moved here. I was like, I was like, oh wait, we have volcanoes in an in the US? Like, I know that's uh that's probably gonna make me sound really dumb, but when I came and did my interview with K O A T, they were like, Oh, those are volcanoes, and I was like, There's volcanoes in the US? Yeah. I didn't think they we that volcanoes were even a thing in the US. So um yeah, shows what I know, how much I paid attention. What especially dealing in the earth sciences? What is uh one of the things that that kind of you as a teacher it kind of goes off where you're like, I love seeing when kids do this. Like, is it when you show them uh some sort of geological feature? Like, what do you see that excites kids the most? And that kind of like ropes them in because this is the age and this is the grade where they really start getting into getting invested into things, right when they're starting to get into steam and really learning about that science aspect of it. What is that one thing where like every year you're like, I can't wait to get to this unit because this is where kids just lose their mind?
SPEAKER_00You know, there's a couple things I would say. Um, in the earth science department, it is when we start talking tectonics and we start talking about volcanoes and earthquakes. Our state is a rift valley, right? Like the Rio Grande is in a rift. So our state is pulling apart, right? And that like blows kids' minds. They don't realize, for instance, that we record earthquakes here on a regular basis. They're micro, they're small, so they're not things that we feel. But like if you drive the I-25 quarter, there's visible faults the whole way up. Um, and one of the things that I do is I show them pictures of that. I don't tell them it's a rift valley. I let them make that discovery themselves by we look at the geological features like the volcanoes that you've mentioned, right, in the Albuquerque area, or we look at the valley, or we look at the faults and along the corridor, and the kids discover on their own that what's going on in our state, and that's kind of a cool moment for them. They always love the volcanoes. Um, we do a virtual field trip of volcanoes throughout the state, and that's something they can't seem to get enough of. And inevitably, um, I'll get a postcard or a brochure at some point during the year where someone's gone and visited something. And um in the life sciences department, something that gets the kids really jazzed is obviously looking at cells and microscopes. Um, but we also raise trout. You pass them on the way up. Oh, that's what those were? That's what those are. So um we've historically raised rainbow trout here for at least the 10 years I've been here. And even before that, I think the program was in place, but I'm not sure for how long. And um we get an egg delivery actually on Wednesday, and the kids will watch all the developmental stages, and we eventually release them out into the Pecos. And this year we actually have two tanks, and um, we were given the privilege of raising um cutthroat trout, which is our state trout. So um the cutthroats are already out there. I can show you them on the way out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_00Um, and those are Rio Grande. Um, so they'll only be released into the Rio Grande. They can't be released into the Pecos, so we'll have to release in two different areas. But the kids love, I think, raising the trout. They really take ownership of that. Um and uh it's it's just uh cool for them not only to see the developmental stages um, but to become more concerned about the ecosystem in which they live, right? To learn about the river.
SPEAKER_01And I feel like they also get attached too, because they raise it's it's almost like I I don't want to compare it to having a kid because I know it's not the same, but oh, but it's totally comparable. But for them, for for you know, uh sixth or seventh grader, they they raised that and they they let that that trout out into other Pecos or into the Rio Grande. And now they're like, Well, I that's where I set my kid off. Like that's where I I need to take care of that because there's a part of me that lives in that river, that body of water.
SPEAKER_00That's a beautiful way to say it.
SPEAKER_01I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_01So I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me today. Um I I think this has been a very fascinating interview, and I I can just see your passion for the sciences just speaking about it. So to end the episode, can you tell me the best piece of advice or guidance that you have received from a teacher in your life?
SPEAKER_00So it's not necessarily a piece of advice or guidance. It's just I think something I learned from all my teachers in general, um, and that's to bring your best self to the table. And that's what I always try to do.
