Math teacher Mrs. Noe has been teaching at the school for 28 years but has taught for 31 total years. She is a fixture in the Falcon halls and one of the few veteran teachers left in the building. Noe has more ties to the school than just the average teacher though. Both of her kids, now in their 30s, graduated from the school and her son, Tyler Noe, is also a teacher and the Head Varsity Football coach.
Q: What classes do you teach and how long have you been teaching for?
A:“I’ve been teaching for 28 years at Cox, 31 years all together. I teach Advanced Placement (AP) Pre-Calculus, which was Math Analysis, and I teach AP Statistics. I’ve been teaching AP Pre-Calc for two years, but Math Analysis for probably 15 years. I have been teaching AP Stat for seven years.”
Q: How would you describe your teaching style?
A: “I would say that my teaching style is very motherly. The kids always say I’m like a mom kind of teacher. Yes, I have some strong rules, but lots of love and respect. We have fun in my class too.”
Q: What steps have you taken to become a teacher?
A: “My first degree was in finance and then when my kids were young, I went back to get my secondary math degree and endorsement. I go back every year to get recertified because I have two degrees but not my master’s. I think that it’s important that we always embrace new teaching styles and ideas. Especially this year, since I revamped AP Stat into something entirely different than before. I’m doing more activities to better myself and my classroom; I think it’s important that we just make sure we don’t go stale.”
Q: What made you decide to teach Pre-Calc and AP Stat?
A: “I taught Stat because no one else in the department would do it, to be quite honest. It’s a hard course to teach. It’s not your normal math course. AP Pre-Calc was Math Analysis. I was teaching Algebra II Trigonometry when they asked if I would also teach Pre-Calc, which was nerve-racking. It’s not a matter of you saying “I want to do this”, it’s a matter of the what the department needs.”
Q: What is your life motto?
A: “Life is all about choices, choose wisely.”
Q: What do you want students to take away from your class?
A: “I want my students to take away life skills. The content I’m teaching, or I’m supposed to teach is important, but I think it’s more important that kids take away how to interact with other people in a positive way. I think it’s more important that they understand that life can be difficult and you have to persevere through it. Some of the kids know I had a medical issue several years ago and I tell them all the time that those kinds of things are what happens in life and it’s how you handle them that’s important. Those are the things that I rather them take away. If they couldn’t name the quadratic formula or know how to analyze a graph, that’s okay, but if they leave my class not being a better person, that’s not okay.”
Q: What has made you choose to stay at Cox all these years?
A: “My whole family’s entrenched in Cox. My husband went to Cox, I went here, the kids went to Cox, we all live in the Cox district. I think what I like about this area is it’s like a little town. I grew up in a really small town on the Eastern Shore and Great Neck kind of reminds me of that. If you’ve been here in this community as long as the Noe family has, you see and know people. I’m teaching a child whose father I taught; there’s just so many connections. Mr. Duffy went to Cox, Mrs. Rountree went to Cox, Mrs. Rusak went to Cox, there’s so many teachers here that just want to give back to the community that we grew up in.”
Q: What is most rewarding about your job?
A:“The relationships with my students. That’s why I keep teaching them; I’m not ready to leave. You’re gonna make me cry girls. I’m just not ready to give that up yet. I just feel like that is the most rewarding thing. If kids leave my classroom and they can’t say, “Oh my gosh Mrs. Noe really liked us”, then I haven’t done my job. If they leave my classroom one day and go, “She was really mad at me today”, that’s okay because I still love you. When I walk into this room, it’s the relationships that I have with my students that keep me coming back.”
