After experiencing her high school years with her English teacher, Madeleine Osgood was inspired by his work and teaching and implemented those learning styles into her own work.
Her teacher in high school taught her for two years but she spent the last two years in his room everyday for lunch. Osgood said, “He was an awesome part of my life and I wanted to be just like him.”
Alongside that, she spent countless days with younger kids, which sparked her love for working with children or adolescents, which is an important passion and character trait to have as a teacher. Osgood said, “I gravitated towards working with kids a lot. I did babysitting but then I also worked at a special ed school with my mom during the summer and I did afterschool daycare when I was in college so I kind of thought maybe this is where I am meant to be.”
Osgood has been teaching for 25 years and she has only taught English courses. She also filled in the role as a long term Spanish substitute even though her Spanish isn’t perfect. She has taught AP Lang, all grades Honors English, fantasy lit and creative writing. Osgood said, “The only English class I haven’t taught yet is AP Lit.”
Although Osgood has mastered English and spent years teaching it, she also enjoys history. Sometimes her lessons require history or background knowledge about history depending on the book that her class is reading or the essay her class is working on. Currently, her class is reading The Things They Carried and her lessons have talked about the Vietnam War and the ‘60s-’70s era. Osgood said, “I love history and that was my second option. I love the writing part of history and the detective nature of it.”
Her AP lang students have said that her class differs from other English classes due to the rigorous work and harsh grading but it’s a good way to prepare students for the exam in the spring. One of her junior students, Skye Cushing said, “Her class is different from other English classes I have taken because a higher quality of writing is expected and we do a much deeper analysis of each text we look at.”
Her students also agree that her teaching style and feedback is beneficial to improving their writing and learning in the class. Cushing said, “Ms.Osgood has us do a graphic organizer before starting our final draft of our essay and she gives feedback on every part of it. I like this method because you can see what you are doing right and wrong before even starting to put together your final.”
Osgood has engaging lessons and activities with her students and often does something different during each class period to keep her students interested in what they are learning. Cushing said, “My favorite memory from this class is when we got to do an ad campaign for a made up product with our friends.”
Osgood has more to her life other than just reading and writing. She grew up in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania but traveled to New Jersey to visit her grandparents every summer. She shared childhood memories with her siblings and cousins that she still reflects on to this day. Osgood said, “It was some of the happiest times because we had a lot of freedom on the beach, our cousins were there, we’d explore caves and I grew up thinking everybody did that and then I realized not everybody gets this opportunity.”
Osgood was inspired by individuals, leading her to where she is today. Between her job, personality and characteristics, she was carried by these individuals who made up who she is. Osgood said, “My English teacher, my mom, my dad, my aunt and authors like Jane Austen and Mark Twain were all great influences in my life.”
