This is Katherine Baird’s seventh year teaching at WJ. Baird currently teaches French levels one, three and five. She is also the sponsor of the French Honor Society and The Net Club in addition to being the senior class advisor.
What are your interests outside of school?
KB: I play [viola] in an orchestra, so that’s probably my main interest. I [also] read a lot. I watch a lot of [television]; I know it’s bad. [One of my] favorite shows [is] “The Amazing Race.” It’s like my dream to be on “The Amazing Race” one day. And they film a lot of it in the summer, so it actually works with being a teacher.
What are some of your interesting or unique hobbies?
KB: I can crochet, which I know is like a grandma hobby. But my great-grandmother taught me before she died. She taught me when I was seven or eight [years old] and I was like,” Oh I’m never going to actually want to do this.” But now that a lot of my friends are starting to have babies and stuff I can actually make them baby blankets or something like that. I [also] like to travel, but I don’t get to travel very much.
Which places have you traveled to?
KB: I’ve been to France a lot, obviously, being a French teacher. From France I’ve done a lot of smaller trips to Germany, Italy and Spain and Switzerland and England. And [also] places you can go to quickly in Europe [such as] Luxembourg. But I would like to do more [traveling]. I want to go to Africa, I really want to go to Haiti, there are lots of places I want to go to, it just hasn’t happened yet.
What are some of your favorite weekend activities?
KB: Definitely going to get crepes is a major weekend activity. There’s this really awesome crepe restaurant in my neighborhood, and I would say that a definite must on the weekend is to go get a strawberry and Nutella crepe. I am [also] usually playing in an orchestra one or two weekends a month. Other than that, just relaxing, hanging out with friends, not hanging out with high school kids.
What are some things you would like to accomplish in your lifetime?
KB: I would like to visit the rest of the continents I haven’t visited, like South America, Africa and Asia. [I want to] make the rounds and do more traveling. I [also] think it’s a pretty big accomplishment to [be] one of those people who are teaching 30 years later. It’s like, “Wow, that’s a lot of years of kids and grading you put in.” I think that would be a pretty good accomplishment to stick with [teaching] for that long. I want to have kids someday, not right now though. [But] traveling is probably the thing I’m most interested in.
