An Interview with Meghan Roarty A look into the life of AP Psychology instructor Meghan Roarty. WORDS by MADELEINE NICKS PHOTO by FRANCES CARLSON
Q: What first inspired you to become a teacher? A: I didn’t initially plan on becoming a teacher. I was studying in the graduate program at UCSB, studying psychology, and I thought I wanted to go into neuroscience research. And while I was there, I also had the chance to be a teaching assistant. That’s when I first fell in love with teaching and realized I loved that a lot more than I did the actual research aspects of it. I loved reading about the research, but getting to work so closely with students was incredibly rewarding for me. That’s where it all started.
Q: What do you believe the most important part of education is? A: I think instilling the idea of being a life-long learner is really important. Learning for the intrinsic value, not solely for the extrinsic for the grade, for the college acceptance. But instead learning because you love to learn and because knowledge is power. Throughout our lives, we still need to learn, and it doesn’t stop when we’re done with school. Empowering students to build certain skill sets that are important for after high school, like critical thinking skills. Which, if you leave high school with those critical thinking skills, is really important.
Q: How long have you been at Laguna, and what was your first impression of the school? A: This is my ninth year. I started out teaching psychology classes at City College. I was looking for another part-time position, and my husband said, “Maybe Laguna Blanca has some part-time positions?” I went online, and they were looking for an AP Psych teacher, and so I emailed the Head of School at the time, and he said, ‘Yeah!’ So my first year I taught AP Psych and Bio, and I’ve been teaching AP Psych ever since. My first impressions were the sense of community, and the relationship that teachers had with their students. I couldn’t believe that students were saying ‘thank you’ after every class. They were so appreciative and respectful and so eager to learn.
Q: What atmosphere do you try to create in your own classroom? Does it change every year? A: I’ve noticed that the tone of the classroom is pretty similar year to year. And it doesn’t always start that way, sometimes it takes some warming up to get there. When students realize that it is a place where they can openly discuss and we can go off on tangents, I try to make it as warm and welcoming as possible, where students feel supported and they don’t feel embarrassed to ask questions. A large part of it is the mutual respect between myself and students, and also between students and one another. Mutual respect is a really big part of that trust that goes on and being able to relax in class, and let your brain open up and absorb without constant…background anxiety of “will this be on the test?”
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Q: How do you feel psychology can ripple out to help students better operate in other subjects or just life in general? A: I’m a strong supporter of psychology for all, whether or not it’s an AP. I just feel that understanding how the brain and body are intertwined is so important for understanding yourself, how you think and behave, knowing how powerful your thoughts are, and how powerful suggestion is. I think it gives so much insight into how you process information and how that then basically affects your whole life. For other people as well, I think it helps build empathy. Because you understand that other people have their own thoughts and beliefs, but also that sometimes when we try to explain the behavior of other people, we usually explain them in terms of “this is who they are, this is their disposition” and we’re not as sensitive to the situation. That’s one of the things we learn about—that we do that, we have these cognitive tendencies. So, if we can be aware of those tendencies, it prevents us from then making these errors in judgment. Q: You often let students have time during class to talk freely about their feelings or just tell stories. Why do you think open conversation is important—especially in an AP setting. A: That’s one of the challenges: we could spend a whole semester on just [one unit], but there are certain things we have to cover. thefourthestate.net
