If you have ever taken French at Lakota West, you know Professuer Hodges. They have been teaching at Lakota for 6 years and now teach all the French classes in the main building. As an Ohio native, Professuer Hodges attended high school in Milford and went to college at Eastern Kentucky University. 

Prof. Hodges decided to go into teaching because, as they noted,  “My two favorite subjects were biology and French, and I decided to go into French because I was too afraid to do more chemistry.” In addition, they also are very interested in linguistics and how it connects to culture. After attending college, they started teaching at Colerain and then moved to Lakota in 2016. 

However, before they started teaching, they had the opportunity to do a semester abroad and an internship in Normandy, France. They were “really excited to go to France and teach for the whole school year”. 

Their favorite thing about being a teacher is “connecting with their students” and seeing the progress they make speaking. Prof. Hodges’s philosophy as a teacher is to “ treat students as the human beings they are” and give them breaks when they need them. 

One of the activities Prof. Hodges leads is the GSTA club at Lakota West. They want to provide “a safe space at school for kids to be themselves and be with other people that are like them.” Their goal is to make the club a space that kids can feel like themselves and be as free as possible.

One of their students, Emily, gives us a better insight into Prof. Hodges. She especially likes Prof. Hodges because “ They’re easy to talk to and open up to and make [them] feel safe”. Students in Prof. Hodges’s class can definitely feel how much work they put in and how much they care about their students.