Mrs. Rentz is one of the current Spanish teachers at Cartersville High School. She has been teaching for 26 years and has been teaching in public education for 13 years. She is currently the supervisor of the swim team, and she is one of the peer teachers in Sources of Strength. Mrs. Rentz has taught both of her children, along with countless others. Her goal as a teacher is to make a positive impact on every student’s life.

When you were in high school, what was your intended major?

Journalism. I wanted to be a reporter on TV because I thought it looked like a fun and very important job.

Why did you decide to teach Spanish?

When I took some journalism classes, they bored me out of my mind. I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do, but I’d always liked kids, and I always helped at church with the children’s programs and stuff, I babysat a lot, and I thought I would make a good teacher. People told me I would make a really good teacher. So I knew I wanted to be a teacher, but I didn’t know what age. I knew that I could never teach math to anybody. I would do a lot of harm because I am not good at math. So, my advisor at Georgia was like, “Well, what are you good at? And I said, “well, I am good at Spanish,” and she said that Spanish was an excellent field to go into, one because when you get certified to teach Spanish or any foreign language, you are certified from preschool to twelfth grade, so you don’t have to commit to just middle school or just high school or just elementary school; You can teach every single age, and I actually have, preschool through seniors. I said, you know, that’s a class I really enjoyed, and I think I could make it really enjoyable and so, that’s how I decided to do it.

How did you learn Spanish?

Well, I took like, two years in high school, and that was it because I was in theatre and chorus and show choir and all of these fine arts electives, so it didn’t really leave a lot of room for me to take a lot of foreign languages, so I just did a couple of years. It came really easy for me, and I enjoyed it. So, when I got to college and decided I would major in foreign language education, I had to take a lot of Spanish classes. So, I learned the majority of it in college.

How did you feel once you found out you got your job at Cartersville High School?

Umm…ecstatic. I was really excited. I had been out of public school education for years because I stayed home to raise my two daughters, and the last I had taught was middle school. So, that was fun. That was not a bad deal, but I was happy, excited, and terrified because I hadn’t taught high school before and didn’t know how different it would be. I taught preschool right before I taught high school.

Did you enjoy teaching your children when they took Spanish 1?

I loved it! It was a lot of fun, and my oldest child participated a lot in class and was very outgoing. My youngest child would not make eye contact. But, they both did very well. I showed them no special treatment because you would never know I was my youngest child’s mother with her sitting in my classroom because of the whole no eye-contact thing. Literally, if she needed something, she would text me. I’m not kidding. But it was her freshman year, and it was a weird year, so it’s okay.

Do you like teaching underclassmen?

I do. They’re very funny. I like teaching Spanish One because I like getting them at the beginning and teaching them how to learn something so different as a foreign language. Sometimes it’s more challenging to teach underclassmen because sometimes, the maturity is not there. Still, all and all, I do enjoy it.

What is your least favorite thing about teaching?

Well, it’s definitely not the kids. They’re not my least favorite thing. It’s all the hoops that we have to jump through. It’s the way we have to prove ourselves constantly. I don’t feel competitive with my fellow teachers at all. I feel like the ones I am close to, we work together for a common goal, but I feel like there are so many things we have to get done. There are PLCs that we have to meet; there’s professional learning that we have to do. It’s not the teaching or the material; it’s not the kids; it’s the added stuff that’s my least favorite thing. The added responsibilities just pile on.

What is your favorite thing about teaching?

The kids. Even the underclassmen. I mean, I love the kids, and they are why I am here, and not only just to teach the material, but to be able to care for them and to be someone that makes them happy to be at school. If they hate coming to school, at least they will enjoy coming to my class and know that they are cared about.

Mrs. Rentz continues to teach at Cartersville High School, and she will continue to work to help the children who attend the school.