Ms. Olson

Isaac Murphy, Staff Writer

January 23, 2024

I was recently given the opportunity to interview the newest AHS teacher, Ms. Olson, about her path to teaching. here’s what I found out!

Ms. Olson is the newest addition to the AHS faculty, having started at the beginning of the fall semester. She has a degree in mathematics education from Chadron State College and currently teaches Algebra 2, but does hope to teach more classes in the future. When asked about who her teaching inspiration was, she told me, “It has to be my high school English teacher; she was someone I could go to for help in any subject, life problems, and she influenced me to be the same kind of teacher she was.” When I learned that she was inspired by a teacher who taught a different subject than she teaches I asked her what other subjects she would like to teach, she responded, “History! I love history and reading. History involves a lot of reading and tells us about past events and people.” Ms. Olson did state, “Alliance wasn’t my first choice honestly, but the reason I came here was because I heard great things about the school district.” “Some of my college colleagues also came and worked here, so I wanted to try it for myself.”

I have heard so many great things about Ms. Olson from students and teachers. One teacher in particular, Mr. John Crile, told me, “She’s a great woman and teacher… The plan was originally for her to student teach for me.” while a student of hers, Jocelyn Virgil, told me, “It’s nice to have a teacher that actually wants to teach it [Algebra 2].” The reason for Jocelyn saying this was because the teachers who originally taught Algebra 2 taught things other than math. The final person I asked about her was Mrs. Hiemstra, though she is not a math teacher Mrs. Hiemstra shares a hall with Ms. Olson. When I asked Hiemstra what she thought about Ms. Olson, she said, “Oh my! She’s such a good person. I obviously haven’t taken any of her classes, so I can’t make any comments on that, but I’m sure she’s good.”

Ms. Oslon hopes students will enjoy her class and be able to learn something new from her!

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About the Contributor

Isaac Murphy, Staff Writer

Isaac Murphy is a 15-year-old sophomore at Alliance High School. He moved here from Saint Cloud, Florida last December and absolutely loved our cooler weather here in Alliance, Nebraska. The reason he moved is because his uncle Kevin made the rest of his family move here. Isaac was born February 14, 2008 at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital in Kissimmee, Florida to Kelly Murphy. Isaac had been through seven houses thanks to his mom getting married a lot, these houses ranged from Kissimmee, Florida to Saint Cloud, Florida. Isaac says that he has three main hobbies/interests, his favorite is playing video games. His two favorite being Rainbow Six Siege and Valaront, he says one of the few reasons he likes them so much is because they are shooter games and he has found out he performs well in them. Another interest Isaac has is Formula One racing! He has liked Formula One since he was about 10, loving the high intensity and watching as people compete in cars designed for such things. Formula One is when ten teams design a car under certain regulations, these regulations are known as the Formula One. When Isaac is older, he is hoping to go to Monaco because of F1 (Formula One) and the fact he finds it a really beautiful country. He also loves cooking with a strong passion, one of Isaac’s favorite things to make is grilled cheese, he likes to make this because it’s one of the easier foods to make. Isaac is also a big time sports fan and he really likes the Orlando Magic. The Orlando Magic is a basketball team that is based out of Orlando, Florida, they are sponsored by Disney. An interesting fact about Isaac is that he only has one kidney, which is his right. The reason Isaac is missing his kidney is because he has a rare disease called Multicystic Dysplastic Kidney disease, which is where one of your kidneys does not fully develop. Isaac has four pets, two cats and two dogs. His dogs are named Pippen and Norman, these two breeds are jack russell mix and a boxer mix. Isaac’s cats are named Bean and Enzo, which his older brother named. He is an excellent student and has gotten all A’s up to his freshman year. Once Isaac graduates high school, he is hoping to go to the University of Wyoming for a degree in criminal justice. The reason Isaac for this is because he has an uncle in the Air Force that he wants to be like. Life here has been a lot different than Florida for him and he wouldn’t change a thing that has happened here. He can not wait to improve his writing ability by working for the SPUD. He is excited to be writing for The SPUD this school year!