Ms. Schroeder spreads positivity

Ms.+Schroeder+stands+outside+a+classroom%2C+smiling

Ms. Schroeder stands outside a classroom, smiling

Students faces light up as they walk into class and see Mrs. Schroeder’s contagious smile. They often greet her with a warm hug and absorb the joyous atmosphere.

Schroeder spends two days a week subbing at VHHS. On her off days, she spends time with her grandson. She loves Vernon Hills because every student has so much to offer and that Vernon Hills has become her happy place. 

 “I even tell some of my students, I would just come here if they didn’t pay me; I just love being around the positive energy that’s here,” Schroeder said. 

It is her goal to brighten student’s days by encouraging students to stay optimistic amongst all the stress that high school brings. Students notice Schroeder’s gift for positivity. 

“When you’re with someone else who is really positive, it kind of rubs off on you, and you just feel a little bit more uplifted,” senior Riya Rathod said. 

At the end of every class period, students line up to receive stickers from Mrs. Schroeder. The sticker tradition started when she brought them in for the preschool class, and her high school students begged for them. From then on, students were constantly asking her for stickers, and she couldn’t be happier to hand them out. 

“She makes me a lot happier when I have for a sub,” junior Madisyn Chiarello said. “I feel like a little kid when she gives me stickers, which makes me happy.”

Mrs. Schroeder taught family and consumer science for 27 years but stopped teaching once her daughter graduated from college. After two years of retirement, she missed the students and began subbing.

Mrs. Schroeder grew up in the Chicagoland area with her mom and two brothers. As a kid, she knew she wanted to be a teacher. 

When she got to high school, she took all of the family consumer classes. It was there she found her passion for consumer science. 

She got her teaching degree from Illinois State and minored in sociology and psychology. Although she primarily taught family and consumer science, there were a few semesters she taught sociology.

In college, she took a preschool class. She immediately fell in love with the three and four-year-olds. In her first year of teaching, she got to work with both preschoolers and high schoolers. She loved watching high school students share the same passion for teaching that she has.