From legal papers to essays about Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” English teacher Erin Aube’s exact work has shifted from her former job as an attorney, but her dedication for her job is unwavering.
Aube said her decision to leave the career of an attorney allowed her to start fresh and move towards the path of teaching.
“I originally was an attorney and graduated from Emory Law School in 2005,” Aube said. “I practiced law until 2017, then joined Teachers for America and began my teaching career. I decided to make the switch because I felt like the law was never really the right place for me. ”
As a teacher, Aube said she is grateful to be given the chance to share her interests with her students and be allowed to meet many motivated youth.
“Teaching means to me the opportunity to share what I really love with people that I really love,” Aube said. “Not everyone appreciates my love of books and poetry as much as I would want them to, and teaching is just a profession where you’re so lucky every day that you have so many people share your love with.”
Fellow English teacher Desiree Carter, believes that Aube’s strong passion for writing is one of the reasons for her success as a literature teacher.
“She reads more classical texts than I do,” Carter said. “I like to read more young adult [books] and she is reading more texts that would be considered literature. She’s also very passionate about writing, including poetry.”
Carter said her time collaborating with Aube has been enjoyable, especially with Aube’s interest in engaging outside her classroom.
“Ms. Aube is one of the most creative teachers,” Carter said. “I had the pleasure of working with her last year. She is always looking for ways to connect with things outside the classroom, such as her work through the Poem in Your Pocket Day. Already she’s reached out to professional poets and asked them for poems for this year.”
Having similar styles of teaching while collaborating has allowed both Carter and Aube to envision more detailed assignments for their students.
“She and I have very similar working styles,” Carter said. “‘We’re very what is the big picture.’ And then what are the details that we’re going to plug in. So she shows up with ideas and is willing to then talk about the details and get very specific, which I love.”
Jack Morris, a sophomore and student of Aube, said he enjoys the adaptability of her teaching style, which allows students to provide feedback.
“My favorite thing about having Ms. Aube as a teacher is her flexibility with how she teaches the class,” Morris said. “So for example, after every summative we have, she has this feedback questionnaire, and she changes the class and how we work based on that. So I think that’s cool. It’s been helpful. Like, for example, we implemented more quiet work time, instead of guided stuff.”
Morris believes that Aube has helped him change the way he approached his writing and helped him improve.
“I’ve learned just to sit down and write,” Morris said. “It’s honestly an art, but you just have to do it. She’s taught me how to focus and do it.”
Sophomore Lainey Sigl has Aube for AP Seminar, a class that engages students in cross-curricular conversations and loves the style of how she outlines assignments and deadlines.
“She always gives us a calendar that shows us what we’re supposed to do and when we’re supposed to be doing it,” Sigl said. “She also gives good assignments and is overall a good teacher.”
Aube aims to inspire her students in a way to helps encourage them to have an interest in self-motivated learning.
“I want to inspire my students to start asking questions and having a desire to learn on their own,” Aube said. “I don’t want them to take the easy way out, I want them to feel that reward of figuring something out on their own or learning to ask the right questions. Taking that academic or personal journey and feeling like they did it themselves. I want to be able to give them the tools to be able to do that.”
