From different students to meowing cats — Liz Dodd has experienced it all. Dodd is in her first year of teaching at CHS and she teaches special education. 

“I first got interested in [special education] in grad school and I did my thesis on autism,” Dodd said. “That led me into working with students with autism and now I work with lots of kids with disabilities.”

 Even though she’s new to CHS, Dodd has many years of experience under her belt. In these years, she’s taught at multiple levels, such as elementary school.

“I’ve been teaching at the elementary school level for 20 years now,” Dodd said. “I felt like it was time for something different, so I came here – and I’ve got some friends here.”

Having many years of experience, Dodd knows through the observed practices how different the elementary school and high school levels can be. 

“I think having routines is going to be the same and my kids that I work with like having things very similar for them and some of the programming that we use is the same,” Dodd said. “What’s going to be different is the bell schedule. Having different periods, having a different group of kids is different than coming in the morning and having the same group of kids all day long.”

With a teacher moving from an elementary school to a high school in the same general area, the likelihood of seeing former students is higher. This fall, Dodd underwent this experience. 

“Some of my former students recognized me right away and introduced me to their parents at back to school night,” Dodd said. “Then in the hallways, a couple of kids have seen me and it’s been several years since they’ve seen me and they’ve sort of done a double-take and been like, ‘hey, wait a minute, you’re not supposed to be here.’”

Additionally, cats have helped Dodd on her teaching journey, for herself and her students. Although separate from the classroom, Dodd finds ways to include them in her work. She began fostering 11 years ago because she thought she had lost a cat, but didn’t want to put in the money for a new one. She currently has 12 cats in her house, four of which are hers and eight are fosters.

“Students ask to see cat videos as a reward for getting their work done because I have a spy camera in my house that watches the cats,” Dodd said. “So as a reward once they get their work done, they log into my camera and they get to turn the microphone on and talk to my cats.”