Math teacher Kelly Lamberjack didn’t expect to be an educator. Teaching since 1994, she originally planned to become a pediatrician from college at Eastern Michigan University.

 “I had thought about going into pediatrics because I was working with science, and I was working with kids, which I had loved to do,” Lamberjack said. “I had worked in a hospital. And I had worked with a lot of doctors and they were doing great things but then you know, when I got to college, I was just kind of like, what do I want to do with my life?”

When she had to take a break from school due to her health and other factors, she was inspired by all the teachers in her life to enter the education field. 

“I was fortunate enough to have friends of the family and people in my family who were teachers. I got to go into their classrooms and work with the kids and I got to see what they were doing and the excitement of it, and a chance to interact with the kids on a more regular basis. When I was growing up, there were teachers that I just loved, and I saw how teaching affected their lives and how happy and fulfilled they were.”

Lamberjack really enjoys what she does. 

“My favorite thing about teaching is just getting to know my students,” Lamberjack said. “I love connecting with them, sharing information with them, helping them reach their potential to try and help them to succeed. Especially the ones that don’t think they can do it.”

She has been teaching at Clague since 2011 and has also taught at Forsythe, Scarlett, Pioneer, and Huron. 

“I like how welcoming Clague is,” Lamberjack said. “I like the diversity and the staff and the students coming together from all different walks of life. Everyone brings different perspectives and is excited about different things. So it just makes life interesting. Everyone’s so kind and willing to work together, which is nice. You don’t feel like you’re alone. You always have someone that’s got your back.”

She currently teaches part-time with two sections of sixth-grade math and one section of Algebra II AC.

“It’s nice watching the kids go from sixth grade up,” Lamberjack said. “In middle school, you can have fun with students, so I think it’s kind of exciting because everyone is still trying to figure out what they want to do, and they’re excited about learning.”

Lamberjack said that the positives to teaching strongly outweigh the negatives.

“I’ve had a couple of students who were really struggling,” Lamberjack said. “They came into the school year and didn’t feel good about school or feel good about math, and they were always knocking themselves down. And having them be open to working with me was huge because sometimes people think, ‘No, I can’t do it, I can’t do it.’ But by the end of the year, they felt comfortable. They were excited about school. Just being able to connect with students and kind of spark their interest, even if it’s not with math, just gives them the confidence that they can do it. I think the success stories are why we do it.”

She loves helping kids grow and learn. 

“It’s nice to help students become independent learners and hopefully foster the thought of how important education is and that you can have fun with it sometimes,” Lamberjack said. “Even when it’s hard.”

She believes that anyone can be successful if they really put their mind to it. 

“Anyone can do whatever they want to do. They have to break down that wall and know that it’s okay to fail. It’s okay to make mistakes because that’s how you learn. If you’re always afraid that you’re not good enough or you’re not going to be successful on the first try, that is going to make life challenging and you have to take the successes and take the good with the bad because that’s how you learn and grow and figure out what you want to do with your life.”