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It’s Back to School season at New Story Schools! We’re inviting you to get a glimpse into the lives of some of our incredible team members who are heading back into the classroom and school building to support our students throughout the 2023-2024 school year. Thank you to all our amazing team members who make an incredible impact on the lives of our students each and every day!

Team member: Tina Carey

Title: High School Special Education Teacher

Campus: New Cumberland, PA

Can you tell me a little bit about your family? 

I have one son, a daughter in-law, and two grandsons. I also have four siblings, I’m the baby of the family. We grew up on the West Shore of Harrisburg, PA and then I moved to the East Shore after I got married and I’ve been in Harrisburg ever since.

Do you have any hobbies? 

Not really. If I’m not working or planning for work, then I am working part time for Target or trying to spend time with my grandsons. We usually watch a show or a movie since I am a big binge watcher.

What was your favorite subject in school? 

Social studies and geography! I’ve always enjoyed learning about the world and traveling!

What is your favorite thing about your job? 

Those “aha” moments where you can see it click. If the students are working on something for a while and they can’t get it and then all of a sudden you can see the light bulb go over their heads.

What are you most excited about for back to school?

I have some plans to go about some new ways of presenting things to the students. I found a writing program that sounds like it is going to be great. Writing can be difficult in a typical setting and can be extremely difficult in this population. It has been a struggle for me for many years trying to figure out how to help them connect the dots. So, I am looking forward to seeing if that actually works and if we can make some writing progress.

Can you tell me about an achievement that you have seen from your position? 

I feel like it is the way I do math. I feel it is very important because math can be very frustrating for students. Several of the other teachers have said to me, “I think I’m going to try to do math the way you do it.” I assess the students and let them work at their own pace. Math is so foundational that if you don’t build that foundation, you can’t get any farther. It’s really important that we don’t skip over those steps, and I can’t push them into algebra, for example, if they don’t understand how to do basic operations.

Do you have any future goals? 

My biggest goal right now is the writing method and trying to figure out a way for that to make sense. I have students that can’t put together a complete sentence as is, so my biggest goal is trying to see if they can get a handle on it.

Tell me a surprising fun fact or something that no one knows about you.

I was actually kicked out of kindergarten. I think that was an early indicator that I should be helping these students that don’t necessarily fit the mold of a typical student. I clearly did not fit that mold and was struggling with ADHD before it was well known

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