Mari Ibbs, High School English Teacher

By Laurel Ibbs

Oct. 29, 2021

“The first day at Bend High felt like I had won the lottery, because it was so difficult to get a job in Central Oregon” said Mari Ibbs, an English teacher describing her first day employed in Bend. Ibbs came with 18 previous years of experience and a teacher of the year award, yet struggled to get a job or even an interview for a position in the school district. After working as a “Medical Tech Aid, assisting in biopsies, and placing patients on the MRI machine” for a year, she had an opportunity to fill a position at Bend Senior High School. She describes her first day when an “enthusiastic young basketball player attempted a slam dunk into the garbage can, but instead rammed his hand through the ceiling tiles ripping open the skin of his fingers. He then proceeded to shake his hand because it was stinging and splattered blood across the front of the classroom” until she grabbed his wrist and covered his hand in tissue. She “learned how important an EA can be in the classroom. The EA was able to escort the kid to the nurses” while continuing to teach her lesson.

Staying motivated as a teacher can be rough during testing times. “It is important to me that my students can communicate effectively through writing, but also articulate complex thoughts” says Ibbs. Her main “focus is to teach them strategies to improve comprehension, problem-solving, decoding and social awareness”. A strong believer in positive reinforcement in the classroom, “I always tell my students that my goal is to give them the tools they need to feel confident in any situation so that they never feel ‘less than’ anyone else.” Helping students feel welcomed and safe is a key role to being a successful educator. Ibbs is the daughter of another successful educator. “My mother was an elementary teacher for 28 years and a principal for eight more years. I avoided my innate calling until I became a mother, that’s when I realized that I was still educating just not in the classroom” said Ibbs. It’s interesting when one is also married to an educator. It can be testing at times but also has its perks. “It can be a challenge when a spouse forgets that you also had the same challenging day as he/she did, with students all speaking at the same time, disrupting each other, asking to use the restroom at the key point of the lesson, and parents/other adults not understanding our limited time to complete work during the day”. The positive side of being married to an educator is “we have time off together and an understanding partner in which to vent”. She says it can be a little overwhelming when both partners are busy teachers with parenting at home.

Interaction plays a big role when it comes to being an educator. When Covid happened, it changed the way teachers knew how to teach. “Covid took the best part of my job and left me with mainly the worst part of my job.” said Ibbs laughingly. She enjoyed being able to set the pace of her day and having more flexibility, but that came with the irritation of not being able to see or interact with her students. “It was impossible to determine their level of understanding, to monitor subject mastery, and it simply was just no fun.” It caused students to learn and struggle more than they would’ve if they’d had the social interaction that Covid took away. Sometimes social conflicts occur and can be tricky to solve in the classroom. These days it can be difficult, “to have discussions because I feel as if my comment may be taken out of context,” says Ibbs. “It’s sometimes necessary to qualify every statement with a precursor of ‘this is not a political statement, and you are free to believe as you wish, but I’d like you to focus on…’”. Our time era is so unique, from politics to pandemics, you never know what’s going to be brought up at school.

“Our students love to be Lava Bears and to be students at the original school in town. Many students have parents and grandparents that graduated from this same school, so they see it as a great legacy to be able to attend the same school” said Ibbs. She loves the atmosphere at Bend Senior High School. The most difficult part of teaching is “seeing students waste their potential. They can do so much, but they choose to do nothing because developmentally they're just not mature enough to address some of their learning needs”.

Her advice to new teachers is “try your best to relax and to enjoy the kids and try to do the best he/she can with what he/she has”. Starting a new teaching career can be rough and putting yourself out there can be difficult. “Having an experienced teacher as a mentor can be invaluable and I am very grateful for the experience teachers that guided me when I first began,” says Ibbs and that she “stives to be that mentor for new incoming teachers”. The teaching profession is always changing and evolving. “Teachers are not in this field for money, fame, or glory, so it’s imperative that we enjoy guiding people toward their best selves,” says Ibbs. People don’t realize how much effort teachers give every day. How much extra personal time out of their own lives they sacrifice. Their students become “their kids” for a certain period of time, they care about and worry about their futures and want the best for them. Be appreciative and thankful for your teachers, it’s not the easiest job, but it’s a genuine one!