“All the world’s a stage,” and that includes the classroom for Kathy Leaf, Spanish teacher at Foothill. Her love for teaching influences her work in the classroom, but her passions don’t stop there.
Even though she is a teacher, she hasn’t always aspired to be one. In her high school years she was living on the East Coast and was actively involved in drama. She claims her old self “was a chorus and theatre kid.” Within the drama department, she participated in “huge plays [like] ‘Godspell’ [and] ‘A Chorus Line.’” While she was with her chorus, she attended choral competitions even at the state level.
When she was not working with her choir, Leaf would spend her time like any East Coast citizen: doing anything that involves water.
“We swam, we kayaked, we canoed, we sailed, we did every water sport there ever was,” she said.
Even now, her love for water remains. Luckily, she lives close to the beach, and she loves to go and swim even though the water is a bit colder than the warm East Coast waters.
With time Leaf developed new interests aside from drama, and felt like acting wouldn’t fulfill her financial needs in the future. So, Leaf decided to plan for a new potential career. She spoke with her friends who were all teachers, Leaf was encouraged to get her teaching certificate because schools “really need foreign language [teachers].”
She took classes to obtain her certificate and she “knew it was for [her] because [she] loved being in the classroom again.”
Now she still gets to pursue her old hobby of drama and combine it with her job of teaching.
“[Teaching Spanish] gives me opportunity […] to use my love of music and my love of theater and all that kind of stuff,” she said.
If she isn’t working at Foothill or working at her second teaching job where she teaches English to foreign language speakers, Leaf enjoys crochet and yoga, though she is still searching for her ideal yoga studio. Including crochet, Leaf loves all fiber arts such as yarn and other various materials.
Though she loves drama and all her other hobbies, Leaf truly loves and does not regret that she pursued teaching Spanish as a career.
“I don’t think there is another subject [I would teach],” Leaf said. “I love language acquisition.”
