By Amelia Naughten, Staff Writer
You may know her as your current history teacher as a sophomore or junior, or perhaps you remember her from your middle school history class at Taylor. Ms. Donohoe may be a new teacher at Mills but she is no newcomer to the Mills community, campus, and Millbrae area.
Ms. Donohoe grew up in Millbrae where she attended Meadows Elementary School. She then graduated to Taylor for all three years of middle school and again to Mills for her high school years. During her early school years, some of her hobbies included competitive cheerleading and participating in the Lunar New Year dragon dance team.
When she graduated from Mills in 2006, she applied to and was accepted into the University of Santa Cruz where she studied European history, aspiring to become an Egyptologist. “It was the most wonderful time in the whole wide world,” Ms. Donohoe commented when asked about her college experiences.
However, at the time of her graduation from UCSC, the Recession of 2008 was underway. “We graduated from Santa Cruz during the recession, and we all went back to grad school because no one could get a job,” she shared. The setbacks of that time forced her to rethink her career. Her older brother was a teacher when this occurred and she also had a lot of experience from supervising children in summer camps and babysitting, so she decided to explore the teaching route. She transferred to the University of San Francisco and achieved a masters in teaching.
After receiving her credentials, Ms. Donohoe worked at a small private school, teaching about world religions. But when a new teaching position opened at Taylor for history, she was excited to explore a new curriculum. Since that time, she has worked at Taylor for five years teaching US history to eighth graders. “It feels super lucky because I [finally] found the thing that I love so much.”
In her time at Taylor, she went through five different years of classes in which she experienced many different teaching opportunities and challenges.
“My first year at Taylor was so hard…Taylor teachers have way higher expectations for how students were going to perform, standards were really clear for what you guys needed to be able to do, [and] how you were going to operate in an academic space was really different [from private schools].” However, once she understood the curriculum and standards, she found that she enjoyed teaching the history curriculum and collaborating with the wonderful students and teachers at Taylor. “We have the best students here in Millbrae… thoughtful, curious, engaged, funny, [and] fun.” She never thought she would be leaving her job so soon.
A new position to teach at Mills was posted a week or two before Taylor got out, whilst Mills had already finished their academic year. The opening was to teach Modern World History and US History for juniors and sophomores. Ms. Donohoe was reluctant to leave her much-loved spot at Taylor but she also wanted to take the opportunity to broaden her skillset and versatility by collaborating with a new set of students and staff at Mills.
“I loved teaching at Taylor and would never say one bad thing about it, but before there was only one other teacher who taught only history…Here at Mills, I think there’s ten people in our department [history and social science]… These are some of the best teachers in the peninsula for me to learn from, and I want to grow and be the best teacher that I can be.”
The first Monday of the summer of 2022, Ms. Donohoe was interviewed for the position. She recounts how the conversation was centered around the way Mills treats its students, the expectations they have for students, and the way they approach history through thinking about social justice and equity. Ms. Donohoe knew from that moment that “This is the school I want to be teaching at.” She acknowledges that she will miss so many of the teachers at Taylor that she had learned from over the years as colleagues and as friends but that she is eager to explore the new opportunity.
Over the summer, Ms. Donohoe received help from the history teachers here at Mills including Mr. Lira, Ms. Zink, and Ms. Campbell to help her prepare for the new curriculum at Mills. Together, they looked over standards, the textbook, writing, assessments, and teaching approaches. In her free time outside of those sessions, she read the textbooks, listened to educational podcasts, researched the content, and asked questions to people who specialized in history. “But I also tried to give myself some rest because I know once the school year starts…it’s a lot of work all at once and nothing can wait.”
When the time came around, she found that her transition from Taylor to Mills was unlike any other job transition she had ever experienced. Teaching for the past five years and growing up in the Millbrae area, she knew so many teachers and students from the community that the transition felt comfortable. “It’s this magical thing where no one ever starts a new job and knows 600 people in the place where they’re going, but I did. I had this new job, new school, but I knew a student in every grade, and I knew some of the teachers that were my teachers…It’s new, but it’s familiar.”
On that note, Ms. Donohoe gave advice to the students at Mills. When she was enrolled in Mills, she struggled with her math classes. One way that she improved in this subject was by asking questions and not being afraid to accept criticism. She believes that an important quality in a good student is always being curious and having engagement that is driven by this curiosity. At the same time, it is equally important that students are accepting of themselves and their unique skill set.
“Mills is a really competitive space academically,” Ms. Donohoe explained, “My thought would be; how can we be gentle with ourselves?” She went on to explain that “there are always going to be places where we have weaknesses and learning how to live with or work with those limitations is important… Learning to accept that and have some peace with that has been helpful for me.”
Ms. Donohoe remarks on how she is excited and grateful to be a part of the positive community here at Mills. In the future, after she settles into her new position, she is eager to look for ways to serve the community outside of the classroom. Currently, outside of work, you can find her listening to music from the 60s and 70s as well as walking and caring for her young golden retriever, Leo. She is looking forward to exploring the curriculum and learning more from students and teachers at Mills this year, and for years to come. “I hope to just be able to stay here at Mills as long as everyone will have me.”
