|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
New Hart Middle School principal Caroline Fields was a teacher well before she even went to college to officially become one.
The lifelong art enthusiast proved to be so knowledgeable about the subject during high school that she ended up leading the class sometimes.
“I just loved the subject matter and my art teacher had me start to teach things,” Fields said in a recent interview. “I went beyond a TA, so I taught kids how to do calligraphy. So I think I just took to (teaching).”
Fields — who stepped in to lead the Hart campus in August after former principal Leslie Heller transferred to Village High School earlier in the summer — also had the advantage of growing up with two educators that she said “probably” sparked her interest in the profession even before then.
The Bay Area native and her three brothers were raised in Oakland, where Fields’ mother was a college math teacher and her father coached collegiate basketball, and then graduated from Bishop O’Dowd High School.
It was there that she became inspired by both her high school art teacher and history instructor to eventually merge her interest in both subjects.
During college, Fields pursued a double major in art and art history and then later received her master’s from Brandman University. Her first teaching job landed her right back at O’Dowd, where she taught for a decade before applying to Pleasanton Unified School District in 2003.
The move was strategic, largely motivated by a desire to work closer to her home that she shared in the Tri-Valley with her family, including her three daughters.
“It was close to home but also such a great school district,” Fields said. After one year at Harvest Park Middle School, she transferred to Foothill High and taught there for 10 years until the job for vice principal at Harvest Park opened up in 2014.
After some consideration — and encouragement from her colleagues — Fields decided to make the leap into administration and apply for the VP position at Harvest Park.
“It was kind of organic. It wasn’t like I had this grand plan because, honestly, I loved teaching, I wasn’t in any hurry to leave,” she added. With her promotion also came the new challenges and responsibilities of managing hundreds of adolescents during what she called “such a critical time” of their development.
With an extensive history at PUSD as she now embarks on her first year as a principal, Fields has the advantage of knowing the district’s goals and programs like the Positive Behavior Intervention System, and having “two great vice principals” at Hart to help. Fields said her approach is “shared leadership” with vice principals Mary Geasa and Alex Ramirez, who have “lots of years in the district as well.”
Even though she spent most of her tenure at PUSD teaching high-schoolers, Fields said switching to middle school has allowed her to reach a new group of students even earlier in their academic careers.
“The change these kids go through, and to be here at that critical time and encouraging them to make those right decisions and encouraging that spark for learning” is what Fields said makes working with middle-schoolers engaging and rewarding.
“I think what is just so rewarding as a teacher is those light bulb moments where you get kids excited and engaged about learning,” she said. “I think that’s why all of us in teaching stay with it: because it’s just so fun and compelling and rewarding.”
