With
more than 200,000 views on YouTube, Scottsburg High School business
teacher Tamah DePriest is not only teaching her students in the
classroom, but she’s teaching people around the world.
“I never dreamed anyone outside of my class would watch these YouTube videos,” DePriest said.
What
started as a way for her students to review the content she covered in
class that day has now turned into nearly 1,500 subscribers. Viewers as
far as Australia are even asking for accounting advice from the SHS
teacher.
“At least once a week, someone is saying thank
you so much for these videos,” DePriest said. “It makes it worthwhile —
knowing that you helped somebody else.”
While the viewers
of the videos see end result of the step-by-step instructions on how to
conquer balance sheets, bank reconciliations, and other business-related
transactions, the viewers do not see how much planning goes into
DePriest’s lessons and classroom activities.
Every moment of DePriest’s day is used with precision. The veteran teacher of nearly three decades starts her day at 5:30 a.m.
“I utilize every minute,” DePriest said. “I am a good time manager.”
The
mother of four — with two adult children and two elementary school-aged
children — and grandmother of five starts her mornings with getting her
children ready for school before arriving to work around 7:35 a.m. Once
at SHS, she reviews her daily agenda, checks to make sure plans are
perfectly in place, and makes photocopies of any resources she will need
during the day, all while sipping a cup of tea.
As
classes begin at 8:04 a.m., DePriest starts teaching her students about
the ethics of business practices, how to record employer payroll taxes,
and how to decide what future educational and career path to take.
She
does many of her teaching activities while recording her screen. The
screen recording shows viewers what she is presenting to her class. The
final instructional video allows for any student, who missed class that
day, to know what happened during class. It also allows for her
students, who were not absent from class that day, to go back and review
what she taught during the class period.
“I think it’s
more authentic,” DePriest said about making the screen recordings as she
is teaching them in class. “The technology has helped reduce in
planning. Instead of sharing a video, I can give a link. In case of
absence, I can leave a link [of the screen recording and other
materials] on the daily agenda.”
After teaching part of
her day, she uses the time during her planning period to prepare for the
upcoming days and weeks of her classes. This semester, DePriest is
teaching four different subjects, from Preparing for College and Careers
to Accounting II.
When she is done with the school day
and arrives home, DePriest spends her evenings helping students via
email. She also works on any needs from her family’s business, a
sporting and hunting magazine called, “Hounds and Hunting.” By being a
business co-owner with her husband, DePriest is able to gain personal,
real-life experience in the business world, and those lessons she learns
as an entrepreneur, she can later share with her students. She not only
teaches the content, but she experiences the content in the real world.
“Kids
come back and say, ‘I’m an accountant because of you,’” DePriest said.
“You think of this as your daily routine, and you have no impact, but
you do.”
When she is not answering student emails or
working for her family business, DePriest is watching her grandchildren
while their parents are working in the evenings, and she is caring for
her two elementary school-aged children.
“I love
teaching,” DePriest said. “I try to make every kid see the value of
education. I like the kids. I respect the kids. The kids know when they
come into my classroom, we’re going to work.”
On Fridays,
she spends two hours or more grading class assignments; on Saturdays,
she spends time to planning even further than what she was able to do
during her preparation period; and on Sundays, she is working on
developing and refining her content that she teaches.
“Money
is never a motivator for me,” DePriest said. “I am teaching at the same
school I graduated from. I wanted to come back where I was making a
difference.”
DePriest is making a difference whether she
is in front of the classroom or she is in front of the camera. At Scott
County School District 2, DePriest’s story is our story. Your story
matters. You matter.