By KILEY BRANAN – There is a returning face at IHS as Mrs. Betta is out on maternity leave for the remainder of the school year.

Mrs. Janetski is stepping in as her long-term sub. You may remember seeing Mrs. Janetski last school year in the science department as a student-teacher; now she is back and excited to be here.

Who is Mrs. Janetski, you ask? She is a mom, a nature lover, a science teacher, and a traveler. Mrs. Janetski likes to spend time traveling with her family, mainly to national parks as they all love the outdoors.

She has been teaching science for the past 11 years. Starting out at a nature center in Michigan, all the way to biology labs at both Grand View University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She moved here six years ago and completed her M.S. in Biology with initial teacher certification and is enrolled in a doctoral program in curriculum and instruction at IUP.

She has worked with students of all ages from Pre-K to adult and finds teaching to be a very rewarding challenge. 

Mrs. Janetski is very excited to be the long-term substitute for Mrs. Betta. She has worked with Mrs. Betta before and is glad she got the chance to take over her classes for the remainder of the year.

She currently teaches four sections of Geology and one section of Biology. “Biology is my favorite course to teach since my background is primarily in biology and environmental science, but geology has been a lot of fun, too. It’s my first time teaching a geology course so it has been fun to build off of what Mrs. Betta has done in the past and try to come up with some of my own ideas,” explained Janetski.

This year poses some challenges and hurdles that all teachers have to deal with, the first being the difficulty of planning in-class activities with only half the students in the classroom. Science has to do with lots of labs and hands-on activities so this is definitely a challenge.

Another hurdle is providing quality learning experiences to full-time synchronous students. It’s difficult to receive feedback from those who aren’t physically in the classroom, so the teachers work extra hard to find what works, what doesn’t, what’s easy, and what’s not. Janestki commented, “It is definitely a challenge to teach in a Covid-world, but I have been so impressed by the students’ adaptability when it comes to keeping up with school.”

Mrs. Janetski is glad to be back in the classroom, helping to provide students with a knowledge of the sciences. “I am hoping to still provide the students with some memorable experiences throughout the rest of the year,” mentioned Janetski.  Even with all the crazy circumstances, she cannot contain her enthusiasm to be back to teaching once again.

[Photo by Caleigh Cessna]

Photo Caption: “Mrs. Janetski in her classroom and excited to begin teaching.”