Niles West is losing three of its amazing English teachers, one of them being Denise Whitefield. Whitefield has taught at both Niles Central and West, and has been a part of D219 ever since she started teaching at the high school level. She will be retiring at the end of this school year after teaching for 33 years at Niles West. Michele Hettinger and Michael Graham are also retiring from the English department.
Whitefield didn’t originally plan to become a teacher; she wanted to become a physical therapist. After going through her first two years of preparing to go into physical therapy, she decided it wasn’t for her. Then, her mind shifted towards teaching.
“I still wanted to do something where I helped people, and I always was doing things that leant itself to teaching,” Whitefield said. “I tutored [and] I babysat. In high school I was on poms, and I was one of the co-captains. Oftentimes, there would be people [who] needed to go over steps, so I’d be the one to really break it down and go over it.”
Over the years, Whitefield has met and worked with many people. One of her closest friends and fellow English teacher Mary Jo Schnabel will miss working with her.
“I’ll miss her passion for teaching, her unwavering dedication to her students and her daily advice and life tips,” Schnabel said.
Schnabel has worked with Whitefield for many years, and she has loved every part of it. She is grateful for the memories both in and outside of school.
“We’ve shared tons of laughs over the years, celebrated the good times and successes of each other and our families, helped one another through tough personal times and collaborated as colleagues for 20 years in special education and six [years] in English,” Schnabel said. “I love sitting next to Denise in the English office.”
Senior Jaedyn Rogers had Whitefield his sophomore year, and gets help from her in the literacy lab from time to time.
“She has helped me in so many ways in class, with assignments and getting them done,” Rogers said.
Whitefield has mixed feelings about retiring. She is going to miss teaching and being in the classroom, as well as being around all of her colleagues and students.
“Everyone says ‘are you counting down the days?’ and I keep saying, ‘I’m really not.’ I’m trying to enjoy everything. I love planning lessons, and I always have a lot of new ideas that I like to try out, so that’s going to be hard to shut off.”
Whitefield has many favorite moments from teaching over the years and has loved helping students grow and achieve their goals.
“Well, definitely it would be the aha moment when kids get it,” Whitefield said. “You can almost see it physically take shape over the person’s face that they got it, and you know what it’s like when you understand something, it’s a good feeling. I like to be able to help kids feel that way too.”
