A combination of swimming, biking and running for 70.3 miles in one go – twice. Two hundred miles of a team relay. Thirty marathons across 30 states. Comprehensive Service Sites Special Education teacher Andria Watkins has done it all.
(Lizzie Sun)
“My superpower is the fact that I do things that I don’t like doing, so I run marathons,” Watkins said. “I do like the opportunity to finish something that I started that day. When I run marathons, I start that morning and finish it.”
Ending her journey from Chicago, Loudoun and Prince Williams County Public Schools, Watkins took on her current role at CHS with more than 25 years of teaching experience. Starting a new path, she brought lessons from running, guiding not only herself, but her students past the finish line.
“[Running] teaches me how to finish, but also it allows me to understand what it feels like to struggle,” Watkins said. “When my students are struggling with their assignments, I understand that feeling and I have to. I’m better able to come up with strategies on how to get beyond that point for those feelings of not knowing to finish what they have to do.”
Keeping in mind long-term academic goals, Watkins translates the lessons she learned while running marathons into teaching strategies within the classroom. This includes prioritizing individual needs, no matter the difficulties a student may face.
“How can I get a student to access the general education curriculum even though they have deficits in their learning and still pass their SOLs?” Watkins said. “I come up with methods in ways that are reflective of the student’s learning style and allow those learning styles to have space.”
Like her teaching, Watkins chooses her marathons deliberately. From running through the Amish country in Pennsylvania to an open-air field in Ohio, where planes were taking off, each run was unique. This same idea of intentionality parallels her specificity with students, as Wakins believes in shifting particular parts of their thinking past the classroom.
“In running, I think, how can I push myself to get clear?” Watkins said. “For my students, I think about how they are going to push themselves to see themselves in a perspective different than what they’re accustomed to seeing themselves as.”
