A dream experience for many would be to work on an archeological dig in an ancient port in Greece. For Mrs. Hoam, that’s how she spent a semester her senior year of college, working at the site in Isthmia, the ancient port for Corinth in Greece, through The Ohio State University excavation. She worked mainly on a mosaic restoration in a Roman bath at the site. In fact, that’s where she met her husband. He was her boss.
Now, Mrs. Hoam’s summer usually consists of hiking, which gives her many stories to tell. When she camped out in South Carolina, she and her husband were awakened by a ruckus and later found out it was a wolverine. It ransacked the camp nearby but left their things alone.
If she could go anywhere in the world, Mrs. Hoam would go to Iceland to see all its wonders. There, a marathon starts at midnight during the time where the sun never sets, so competitors are running super late but it’s light as day.
Some of Mrs. Hoam’s hobbies include running, knitting, reading and playing D&D. She’s currently in a D&D campaign that has been going on for 5 years and loves how descriptive the dungeon master is when describing and telling the story. Her favorite book would have to be Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll.
Mrs. Hoam has been teaching for 19 years total, counting homeschool teaching, and has been at Fredericktown for 2 years.
In high school Mrs. Hoam knew she wanted to be a teacher when she was influenced by her high school Latin teacher and AP English teachers. Her college Latin, History, and Art History professors made her more positive, this is the career for her.
In high school Mrs. Hoam participated in volleyball and threw discus and javelin for her track team. She worked on lighting crew for her school productions, was in the Latin Club, the Spanish Club, and NHS. In college she was in the choir, tutored Latin, and edited the department newsletter. Her least favorite ended up being Volleyball, due to her coach, while her favorites were Spanish and Latin clubs as they participated in a quiz-bowl competition. Because of the many competitions, they got to a state competition and national test.
One of Mrs. Hoam’s favorite memories from teaching was when she took her students to see Fences by August Wilson at the Woodward Opera House in Mount Vernon.
If teaching didn’t work out for Mrs. Hoam, she would work for her husband at his environmental consulting firm, but she wanted to teach so much so she made it work.
Mrs. Hoam attended Ohio Wesleyan University, spent a senior semester abroad at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, and went to graduate school at the University of Missouri – Columbia.
A piece of advice she would give to new teachers and her students would be this! “Find a piece of joy in every day.“
