Natalie Thompson is a spirited teacher who deserves recognition and a warm welcome from the students here at Casa. She is a new biology and anatomy teacher making a great new addition to the Casa Grande family.
She’s avid for science, her passion beaming off of her as she teaches. “I decided to teach biology and anatomy just because those were subjects I am really passionate about.” If you were to talk to Thompson about her job, she would not only say how much she loves the subject matter, but also how much she enjoys teaching her students. Thompson cares a lot about her students. She strives for them to succeed and loves learning new things about them. “I think that my favorite thing [about teaching] is the students and how diverse they are.” Not only does she show her students respect, but her students show that same level of respect back to her. When you walk into her classroom, the first thing you would see is how her students are paying attention to her teaching. “I just want to spread the love for science.” Although Thompson’s favorite subject to teach is anatomy, she still has a capturing interest for biology.
Because her husband is a member of the Coast Guard, this causes the couple to move every couple of years. When they moved to Petaluma for her husband’s work, she had originally planned to travel for the year, but then she got to thinking. She decided to apply to work at Casa. She then got the job and decided to ditch the plan to travel and is now full time working at Casa. She said, “It’s been good. I really enjoy it here.” This is Thompson’s first year full time teaching, and she’s working hard and thriving! No one would know that it’s her first year.
She is a committed teacher trying to make her classes as fun as possible. “I like to have fun and make my lessons fun.” Thompson’s classroom feels welcoming and energetic. Her students feel comfortable asking her questions and engaging with her during class. It is obvious that Thompson puts in the work for her classes to be fun while learning new things.
Thompson is very intelligent, her background proving it. She started out at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, a community college. She got her associates degree as well as her biology, chemistry, general science, and liberal arts degrees. She then transferred to UCSC and got her molecular cell and developmental biology from there. She then took time off, and that’s when she started working at schools.
After she got her bachelor’s degree, she then moved to Maine for a year. It was in Maine that she worked at a middle school subbing for classes for half a year, then worked one on one with students for the other half. Then she decided to get her masters degree in secondary science through Western Governor’s University.
Most of us have favorite teachers, right? Well, so did Thompson. Her favorite teacher was her professor she had at UCSC. His name was Guido, and he taught cell biology. “He actually was part of the reason I wanted to become a teacher,” she said. He was knowledgeable and passionate about his job. He made his lessons enjoyable and would really get into it. Guido was a big inspiration for Mrs. Thompson and helped shape her to be the teacher she is today. “It was just like a common consensus among all of the college students there.” She clearly learned a lot from him — not only about cell biology, but also about how to teach her lessons today, making them fun and exciting for her students.
While Thompson was at UCSC, she was on a water polo team. They were a Division III club team, and they had no coach and zero funding at the time. In their league, they played a lot of top schools, and they were basically the underdogs always losing to the other teams. But because they were the only D3 team in the league, they got an offer to play at the national tournament. The tournament was being held in Vermont, so they had to figure out how to get their funding, how to buy plane tickets, and had to organize the whole trip by themselves. The seniors on the team worked hard to figure this out. After a lot of fundraising, they ended up getting to go! Once there, they expected to get demolished, but game after game they kept winning. They ended up winning and were shocked but proud of themselves for winning the national tournament.
Thompson’s career is only beginning. Clearly, she has big dreams and is going to work hard to reach her goals. Thompson is a big inspiration to all of her Casa students. Her spirit and enthusiasm are captivating.
