Rachelle Dene Poth is a Spanish and STEAM: What’s nExT in Emerging Technology Teacher at Riverview Junior-Senior High School in Oakmont, PA. She is the host of the weekly #formativechat. Rachelle is the President of the ISTE Teacher Education Network and the Communications Chair for the ISTE Mobile Learning Network. Rachelle was selected as the 2017 Outstanding Teacher of the Year by PAECT and by the NSBA as one of the “20 to watch” educators in 2017.

Rachelle is an author of three books. And, by the way, she is also an attorney. I’m lucky to know Rachelle virtually and to get a hug and selfie with her at conferences. We did this podcast in February 2019 where there were extreme snow storms back east and Rachelle was in a hotel room for a conference. I hope you enjoy this post and the podcast.
 
You and Your family
I am an only child and grew up in North Huntingdon, 30 minutes east of Pittsburgh, PA. When I was growing up my parents worked. Most of the time when they worked, I stayed with my grandfather and grandparents at their farm where they had a large property with fruit, vegetables and underneath was a log cabin. I spent a lot of time by myself because there were no other children in the house to play with. So I passed my time “playing school” or hanging out with my cats.

I’m very thankful for how I was raised because we didn’t have the distractions of technology in the 80s. My parents really emphasized school and studying to be prepared. My grandparents helped me with my work ethic and had me pick strawberries on their farm at 6:30 in the morning. When I think back to all of those times I spent with them, the experiences that I had started to form who I am as a teacher and as a person even before I knew I wanted to go into teaching.
 
Immerse Your Students in AR/VR
What it was like for you as a student
I did struggle with social studies and my dad would question me on geography. I really had a hard time remembering where things were on a map. My grandmother would quiz me on the state capitals, the times table, and a lot of those basic things growing up. Math was a little bit difficult for me. I didn’t have any struggles in school until the seventh grade when I started to take algebra. Then in ninth grade with geometry. I didn’t know how to study for it. Once I had a handle on that, it improved.
I’m not sure that I was that creative in school. It’s interesting when I think about my memories. Do I actually remember this or is it because I see a picture and formed a memory based on that picture? I’ll find artwork or worksheets that I did in boxes my grandparents saved. It’s interesting to go back and see how I was taught to find out who I was as a student. In seventh grade, we had to do an anthology of poems. I had to use a typewriter to type and wrote about 70 poems. I drew on every poem a kind of illustration. But, after that, I don’t remember being creative or thinking out of the box.
Law School
I originally thought of being a paralegal. I read a lot of books on law and developed this interest in it. When I graduated from undergrad with French as my major and secondary education as my minor, I couldn’t find a job. I was substituting for a while and really enjoyed that. Every interview for a job as a French teacher encouraged me to get additional certification. One of the suggestions was history and another one was math. I thought I could not do either one of those. So I went into Spanish at Pitt and we had to do medical and legal translations. It was then that I started thinking about the law. I got my Spanish certification and started teaching Spanish at Riverview Junior-Senior High School in Oakmont, PA  I love teaching but I had this idea of personally fulfilling this. I applied to Duquesne University School of Law and didn’t even tell anyone.