Natalie Dirkx is January’s Teacher of the Month. Dirkx teaches science and this is her first year of teaching.

Writing on the whiteboard was a childhood dream of hers that was fulfilled through becoming a teacher, but Dirkx also chose to become a teacher because she loved her high school teachers and teaching merges two of her loves: science and high schoolers.

She said it was nice that her biology students thought she deserved this recognition and they said she is a kind and caring person who keeps science projects fun for them. In addition, students feel her caring personality through her encouragement, positivity, and sweet inspirational messages at the bottom of tests.

Dirkx also described this honor as exciting, and in response to reading that her students see how much she cares about them, she said it was “great to hear cause I try and make that obvious.”