Twenty-six-year-old Miranda Custer has embarked on a new chapter in her life as a teacher and coach at this school. You can find her in room 216 teaching biology and forensics or in the stadium coaching the girls’ flag football team.
Custer has lived in Maryland her whole life and grew up in Montgomery County. She attended Laytonsville Elementary School, Gaithersburg Middle School, and Gaithersburg High School. After graduating from Gaithersburg, she went on to attend the University of Maryland for undergraduate and graduate school. As an undergrad, Custer studied biology and also minored in Spanish and sustainability. After returning to UMD for graduate school, she studied middle school science education.
One of Custer’s biggest passions is science, specifically biology and forensics. She teaches both right now and loves to bring in guest speakers and people in the forensics field to do fingerprintings with her students. Her students find that “she’s good at providing explanations for confusing concepts and is constantly checking in to make sure everything is understood,” freshman Jyoti Koenig said.
Along with science, Custer was always involved in school sports. In high school, she was a tri-athlete, playing volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter and track in the spring. However, her passion for flag football sparked from her school’s powderpuff games. Similar to Wootball, Custer’s high school’s powderpuff games were events where the girls played flag football and the tackle football team dressed up in the poms uniforms and cheered them on.
While Custer was applying to be a teacher at this school, she discovered that there was an opening to be a coach for the inaugural girls’ flag football team. The second she got the job as a teacher she applied for the coaching job. Because she was never given the opportunity to play flag football in high school, Custer wanted to coach it to share her childhood dreams with younger girls. “[Custer] is good at being supportive [and] pushes us to be better,” senior and flag football captain Maddy Matthew said.
At 26 years old, Custer is one of just a handful of Gen-Z teachers at this school, and her age is one of the main reasons she came back to teach high school. Custer taught seventh and eighth graders for three years prior to coming to teach here, and her experience with middle schoolers made her realize that high school is a better match for her. It can be hard for teachers to make connections with certain age groups and Custer said that she does, “better with older students, students that are more independent, students that are interested in learning and students that kind of have a little bit higher maturity level that I’m able to connect with,” Custer said.
When she’s not examining cells, investigating crime scenes or coaching flag football, Custer spends most of her free time reading and being outside. Last year she read 110 books and her goal for this year is to read about one and a half books per week, or 72 books throughout the whole year. She loves hiking and visiting national parks when the weather is nice and also enjoys going to college football games with her brother who is now a student at UMD.
With a new job, new expectations and new peers, Custer has a big year ahead of her. Rather than being afraid of the challenges, she is excited for them. She said she’s ready for this year of firsts and as for goals, “being able to bring in fun learning and rebuild my love for learning and teaching again is really what I’m hoping for this year,” Custer said.
