The new Health and Fit for Life teacher Paige Hallock was shocked when students didn’t recognize her from relatives who previously attended FHC, and, as a result, she has gravitated toward the environment this school has created.
Prior to applying for this job position, three of her cousins went through FHC playing sports, and looking back, she couldn’t be more proud of them.
“I come here to watch football games and basketball games,” Hallock said. “Seeing a glimpse of the pride that I feel Forest Hills Central has was so special and made me want to be a part of that. I want to grow that pride and bring that energy into my classroom because seeing the overall support that the community has for the school is amazing.”
However, in terms of why Hallock was a fan of the culture that FHC cultivated, this yearning desire to both be an educator and work at FHC stems from some very intrinsic roots of her childhood.
Born and raised in Greenville, MI, Hallock was always surrounded by the influence of teachers. She was an avid basketball player for the school and often found herself playing against a common team.
“My parents were both teachers at Greenville, so I grew up very much a Yellow Jacket,” Hallock said. “We grew up playing Forest Hills, and I was around the school through that and got to see a view of [the Forest Hills] community while playing in my former school.”
Despite the fact that Hallock is working at her dream school, this dream was not always as attainable as it seems now.
Before becoming a health teacher, Hallock debated a plethora of majors before confirming her original passion from the beginning.
“I grew up wanting to be a teacher from as far back as I can remember,” Hallock said. “All my first-day pictures were always teacher, teacher coach. But when I got to high school, I kind of thought about the medical field because I was still helping to care for people. So I went to college to study nursing, which is originally what I majored in. Because I was playing basketball, it didn’t work out schedule-wise. I changed my major five times.”
Even though everyone’s chance at selecting a major will look different, what makes Hallock’s experience so exceptional from the rest is that she was able to learn a lesson through it.
“I went around education and through the medical degrees like biology, and then I finally decided that I’m going to be a teacher,” Hallock said. “I was indecisive, but it’s okay to not know what you want to do because everyone changes majors. I got a glimpse of all of them, and then I felt right about my decision after making it.”
Following the commitment to solidify her major, Hallock continued with Health Education and graduated from Grand Valley State University. From that point onward, Hallock’s job hunt commenced. But along her process of applying for jobs, there was one job opening that she wasn’t aware of.
“My parents actually were the first ones to see [the job posting],” Hallock said. “My dad texted me and said, ‘Hey, they’re hiring a PE and Health teacher at FHC, you should apply,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, I did not know that,’ because I had already applied and interviewed at other places. So, I was moving forward here.”
Hallock’s experience was surely planned out. From the time she applied to when she shared the news with her friends and family, this moment in time couldn’t have been more memorable for her.
“I left the interview, and they told me, ‘Okay, we’ll let you know tomorrow’, [so then] I drove home,” Hallock said. “I was going to my grandma’s house because she wanted to hear about the interview. By the time I pulled into her driveway, the school was calling me, and I was prepared to hear the great news, or not so great news, and decided it’ll be if it’s meant to be, so I answered, and they said, ‘We would really love if you would be a Ranger.’ I was in her driveway, I [gave two thumbs up when] she came out and looked at me and made sure I was good.”
Nevertheless, through the endeavors that Hallock powered through to eventually get to the finish line of her dreams, the aspect of community is one value that Hallock deeply cherishes here at FHC. And if she had one phrase to encapsulate her experience at FHC these first few weeks of school, it would be this:
“We are so lucky to have the teaching staff that we do,” Hallock said. “I think that people don’t realize that, but I just feel so supported and seen as a first-year teacher. It’s scary at times, and it’s new for me, the support that I have from the district as a whole has just been refreshing. I feel like I have a million people I can go to if I have a question about anything, and to feel that support is special, and I feel like it takes the nerves away at the same time because I know I’ve got people, and really loved being here.
