MISS PIGGOTT, SCIENCE TEACHER. DESTINATION: OHIO

After eight years at DHS, Miss Piggott will be moving to Ohio so she and her new husband (she’ll be getting married this summer) can be closer to their families. Piggott knew her fiance from high school, where they went to homecoming together, and after a few years of a long distance relationship, they’re tying the knot to start the rest of their lives together, with a much shorter distance between them.

Piggott was able to teach many different courses in X hall, from the three main science courses of chemistry, biology and physics to senior electives such as criminalistics and anatomy and physiology, which she co-created with Mr. Motzko. Piggott cherished the flexibility that she was given in teaching her myriad courses the way she best felt the students could understand, in addition to her wide variety of classes.

“I loved teaching at Deerfield because we get support from the administration to really have creative license in our classrooms and we get to design curriculum that best meets the needs of students and is also hands on and interesting and engaging, and they give us the resources to do that,” Piggott said.

Piggott, of course, wanted her students to gain a grasp of science, but also was sure to ensure that they had fun while doing so, using her creative license to make fun activities to keep her students interested while also teaching the material.

“I …  enjoyed teaching all the different assignments I’ve had, from freshman physics and creating a rock band from instruments that they made studying sound or biology where we get to genetically engineer bacteria to fluoresce under UV light or dissecting specimens, to chemistry where we get to tackle real world problems and solve them using chemical knowledge”

While Piggott taught at Deerfield for less than a decade, she still observed plenty of change at the school: three principals, two superintendents with a third hired, but the one consistency Piggott was sure to note was her department chair, Mrs. Luepke.

“[Mrs. Luepke has] been amazing in fostering and helping a working relationship and encouraging me to pursue opportunities that I could focus on myself,” Piggott said.

Piggott will miss not only the familiarity with teaching at Deerfield, but her students, colleagues in the science department, and other DHS employees she worked closely with such as Mr. Chamberlin and Mr. Taylor. Piggott also grew fond of the politeness she experienced at Deerfield as she walked through the building every day.

“I’ll miss the general environment of the school– it’s a welcoming, friendly place to be– there’s always someone in the hallway to say hello and offers a kind smile,” Piggott said.

MADAME  WOLF, FRENCH TEACHER. DESTINATION: FUSION ACADEMY, LAKE FOREST

With over three decades at DHS under her belt, Madame Wolf is ending her tenure as a beloved French teacher to continue her teaching career in Lake Forest while also spending time doing the things she couldn’t do while putting in so much hard work as an educator.

“I’ll be traveling, spending time with my family, reading cooking, riding a bike. Hanging out with friends, things that I was kind of limited with if I was working long hours at school, now I’ll have flexibility and be able to do some things for me,” Wolf said.

We’ve already seen how much change Miss Piggott witnessed in her eight years at DHS, and Madame Wolf, finishing her 32nd year in Deerfield, has been a part of four times as much. Wolf focuses less on the administrative changes, however, and more on what she was able to learn as she gained experience and teaching hundreds of students.

“I have learned how to let go of having control of the classroom and allowing the students do– I’m not the one who knows everything, so it’s all about communication, collaboration, everybody working together. So I’ve learned that I’m not the only one giving knowledge. I’ve learned to create an environment that is communicative, collaborative, nurturing, and where everyone can learn and be supportive of each other,” Wolf said.

Wolf’s passion for teaching is not only apparent in her choice to continue teaching and in her ability to learn from her students, but in how little her life changed once she transitioned from full time to part time in recent years.

“I worked as hard part time as I did full time … I just had maybe a little more free time, but no change. I never had the idea that I was part time, I still am teaching French and I just do it as well as I can and give it my all,” Wolf said.

As one of the longest-tenured teachers at DHS, Wolf has a wealth of advice to offer future employees of the school as they look to teach their students while, at the same time, providing support.
“[Future employees] absolutely need to know the subject matter but that’s kind of assumed if they’re going to be hired here, that they need to be passionate about it so they can share their passion with the students and make the subject come alive and be willing to be flexible, be willing to support the students, and encourage them to get a passion for the subject as well,” Wolf said.

Wolf will, of course, miss all of her students that she taught over the years, and no moment resonates with her more as a teacher than seeing her students understand what she’s taught.

“Every time a kid ‘gets it,’ it’s like ‘oh my gosh, that’s right! That’s how I do it!’ and then all the lightbulbs go on. And you can see them kind of sit up straighter and have a sense of accomplishment. Those moments will always have a close place in my heart,” Wolf said.

KORNEYCHUK, FINE ARTS TEACHER. DESTINATION: SAN DIEGO

When Mrs. Akers, Deerfield’s longtime chorus/Choraliers teacher, transitioned teaching only one class three years so she could spend more time with her children before they went off to college, the school obviously needed to find a replacement. They settled on Ms. Korneychuk, a Northwestern grad, who injected her own spin on the arts into chorus, Choraliers, and this year, advisory. As Akers returns to a full time position next year, Korneychuk will be moving to San Diego, where she will teach primarily 6th, 7th and 8th graders at The Bishop’s School, a small, private 6th-12th grade college preparatory school. With only three years at DHS, Korneychuk was not able to see any students progress fully from freshmen to graduates, and while she is excited for her new opportunity, she is disappointed that she will not be able to see some of her students’ futures develop in person.

“There are some younger classes of students that I’ve started off on their way at Deerfield that I would’ve loved to see reach their goals in high school and be there for it and cheer them on along away and I will do that from afar, but it will be a little bit of a bummer to not be right there with them as they’re going through it,” Korneychuk said.

When working in a competitive environment such as Deerfield, it is important for teachers, especially those in the fine arts where there are no finals and tests are sparse, to keep their students relaxed and minimize stress as much as possible. Korneychuk’s view melds with this, but she also pointed out that teaching such driven students benefitted her results on the classroom.

“I think that because we have very driven students at Deerfield, that it’s important that they’re still challenged in a fine arts setting, because if it’s too relaxed, it’s not appealing to these driven kids. At the same time, fine arts classes are where they go to release some of their energy and have an escape from the expectations from all the other things around them, so it’s really a delicate balance between offering a safe, fun environment for kids to relax and keeping them interested by continuing to challenge them musically,” Korneychuk said.

While her time at DHS was limited, especially compared to our other two leaving teachers, Korneychuk was sure to make her time chock full of lessons to impart to her students, some of which are very unorthodox, but will have a lasting impression on all of her pupils, she hopes.

“I have a saying in rehearsal that I think applies well to life. I encourage my students using the phrase “loud and proud, strong and wrong,” which sounds like a terrible motto if you don’t unpack it a bit. But the point is that both in singing and in life you can’t learn unless you’re not afraid to make mistakes and that the more strongly and loudly you make those mistakes, you allow yourself to stumble and get back up, the more you’re going to learn from it,” Korneychuk said.