Teacher Talk

by Marissa Ogar
 Gym and Health teacher Dee Grassey loves teaching. She could not picture her life without it now.

“Make no mistake my friend,” she says.” I have the best job in the building.”

She has fun every day hanging out with kids and playing games, but she didn’t always have this much fun.

“I used to work for the New York Times,” she says. “I had a not so great experience there.”

Grassey used to be a sales manager. She strongly disliked sitting in a cubicle and making phone calls all day. She wanted her job to be interesting.

“I started teaching about 20 years ago,” she says. “I didn’t always teach in Hudson either.”

Grassey quit the job at the New York Times and decided to do what she loves, teaching kids.

Her favorite subject to teach is health because she loves teaching kids what they need to know to go through life. She teaches them about drugs and alcohol and the consequences of consuming those substances.

In addition to health, Grassey teaches all gym games. “My favorite gym game is either volleyball or badminton.” As a kid she played volleyball.

She loves how most gym games are just for learning. “People don’t have to be athletic to play gym games, “she says. “They just have to participate and get the credit.”

Grassey always gives options to her gym students. On the day that I visited her class, she had the boys playing ultimate frisbee and the girls were exercising in the dance room. She encourages everyone to be active and to have fun.

Grassey stays active outside of school as well. “I like bike riding in the summer,” she says. “In the winter I love to do yoga.”

Her enthusiasm for these subjects is evident every day. “ I love my job,” she says. “There is no doubt about that. “