Oak Park High School’s latest addition, English teacher Kelly Keene, strives to bring joy to her students through her love of reading and teaching. Keene teaches AP English Literature and Composition, as well as English II Honors.
Keene has extensive experience teaching English, most of which has been at San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara. Her teaching career began 10 years ago as a substitute teacher at schools throughout Los Angeles. She received her teaching credentials from the University of California Santa Barbara and has taught AP Language and AP Composition these last few years. From the very beginning, she knew that she wanted to be a teacher.
“By looking at a few of them [teachers], I thought this is a really cool job. When looking at some of them, I thought I could do better. So, it was kind of a balance between the two. I just didn’t really ever have anything else I really wanted to do besides this,” Keene said.
Other than her love of air conditioning, Keene expressed that her favorite thing about OPHS is the students and staff.
“My favorite thing is definitely the students,” Keene said. “You all are so great. You’re very hardworking and friendly, all those things. Staff seem really supportive and the administrators have been very helpful. There’s nothing I don’t like so far.”
Although teaching is one of her many passions, Keene also enjoys many activities outside of the classroom.
“I like to read,” Keene said. “I like to swim, hang out with my cats, go to the beach and travel.”
Keene has had a positive impression of OPHS and hopes to make a lasting impact on the OPHS campus as well. Seeing that OPHS has a literary magazine, she hopes to further display the work of students by possibly implementing another form of a literary showcase.
“One thing I’ve done in other schools is a writing festival,” Keene said. “It’s kind of like an art show, but for writing. Then, you have poetry readings and have contests for different writing categories. I would just like to honor the work that students do in their English classes. If you’re working hard all year and writing these pieces, it would be cool to invite your parents and friends to come see the work you did. So, that’s kind of something I’d love to see.”
Keene recalls her most memorable moments of teaching, stating that she enjoys the key moments of self-realization and inspiration her students have.
“My favorite moments tend to be if a student doesn’t see themselves as a writer or a reader, and I get them to find a book that they really liked to read or write a piece that they’re proud of,” Keene said.
