Mrs. Sunding is a very loved eighth-grade science teacher who started working at GEMS at the beginning of this school year. “I started teaching at GEMS at the beginning of this school year. I am so happy to be at GEMS this year. This is a really great school!!!”
I interviewed Mrs. Sunding so students and staff could learn more about her:
Like most people, Mrs. Sunding faced challenges when she was younger. One challenge she shared was, “I did not always have someone at home supporting me with my schoolwork. As a result, I didn’t always finish it. I was a bit lazy at times. I wish I had focused more on school.”
Mrs. Sunding didn’t always want to be a teacher. She said, “Growing up, I wanted to be an astronaut. As I got older and went to college, I wanted to be an interplanetary geologist. But I settled on being a science teacher so I could help kids love science as much as I do.”
“I was most influenced by my mom and grandma, who were both second-grade teachers. I grew up in a classroom, helping my mom grade papers and organize her room after school.”
Like all teachers, Mrs. Sunding has her own teaching style. When asked, she said, “I try to remember how crazy I was as a teenager and try to be patient and understanding with my students.”
Life as a teenager has definitely changed over time—from the rise of cell phones and social media to new trends and behaviors. Sunding said, “It is much harder to be a teenager now. There were no cell phones when I was a teenager. We actually had to talk to people face to face! I think having your entire life memorialized on social media can be really bad in many ways.”
