At the start of the new school year, the social studies teacher, Justelle Grandsaert, has now changed from teaching government to becoming involved in the Silver Creek Leadership Academy (SCLA). At the start of the 2023 school year, Silver Creek had a change in SCLA 9 teachers. Justelle Grandsaert, replacing Vincent Redding, is one of the perfect candidates to become the newest edition of the SCLA community.

“I try to bring enthusiasm and excitement about the program. I love the commitment to service that happens and team building and building a community and those things they can improve on students navigating groups and building community in the classroom,” stated Grandsaert.

Something that students can agree on is that Grandsaert does a great job with including students with her positive attitude to make them become more energetic during her class. By bringing forth the energy she gives students the courage to participate more in her class.

“I love how she is enthusiastic about teaching and she’s always hyper and up and it makes me feel better and it makes me feel happy,” said Forest Rohrer, a freshman in SCLA .

Grandsaert gives each student the amount of support that they need and brings the energy needed to brighten up any student’s day. When Grandsaert is in the classroom teaching students, it makes them feel like they want to learn.

“She has made me want to do the work, especially in class, because I have a hard time wanting to do the work, but she is always very upbeat and happy about it and it makes me happy and in a mood to do work and help,” said Rohrer.

The style that Grandsaert uses to teach kids allows them to become more involved in her class and encourages students to try new things while promoting them to get the work done. Students aren’t the only people at Silver Creek who think this about Grandsaert’s new role. Carrie Adams, SCLA director and founder, is another teacher at Silver Creek who thinks that Grandsaert does a great job of teaching her class.

“Each teacher brings their own personalities to it and I think that it’s one of the things she is extremely passionate about and I think that she inspired people to want to make a difference,” Adams stated.

While Grandsaert brought many great attributes to the table when switching classes, there were some challenges that she pushed through. Those challenges included the process of switching from a class with a developed curriculum to one without.

“We need somebody that’s excited about being in our program, and that somebody that’s willing to step outside their comfort zone…we rebuild the curriculum almost every year, modifying and fixing things that work or don’t work and we need someone who’s really comfortable with coloring outside the lines like that and Mrs. G was a great fit for that,” said Adams.

Grandsaert did a great job of adapting to a different way of teaching and planning all new lessons. When she was teaching government, there was a curriculum that had to be followed. However, in SCLA, there are more guidelines but no set in stone curriculum that needs to be followed. Like in any other class there are projects, but on the other hand, in SCLA, the projects are a bit different and are done to impact the students at Silver Creek

“I really loved the LASP (Leadership At School Projects) project because it was really interesting to hear student perspectives on how to improve our school and make education more valuable, so I found that a really rewarding experience,” stated Grandsaert.

One of the things that Grandsaert loved about teaching SCLA 9 was seeing different perspectives through kids, not from just assignments, but through how students think differently from adults by seeing their thoughts come alive through a presentation.

“It was a great learning experience and I had wonderful students and I enjoyed the
service aspect and students learning outside of their comfort zones,” said Grandsaert.

Grandsaert was an amazing addition to the SCLA staff team and is greatly appreciated to all she has worked with or taught. Students and staff can’t wait to see what Grandsaert does with the program in the future and how she will impact future SCLA leaders.