Apolonia Crawford hoped to be able find a teaching job near her hometown of Lubbock, so she was thrilled to find herself a part of the Permian High School staff. Crawford is a US History teacher that started second semester here at Permian.

“I got here January first in Odessa it was New Year’s Day,” Crawford said.

Her original plan was to teach math, but the school she went to didn’t have a math teaching program. Having to give up her plan to teach math, she decided to teach US History instead. Math and History are completely different subjects, but she wasn’t worried about being bad at it.

“I love us history.” Crawford said. “[It’s the] only whole history realm that I’m actually good at and when I took my certification I got perfect scores,”

All teachers have another “outside” lives that most students never get to learn about. Crawford’s is that she used to be in the Military. For four years she was in the Army working with communications. Of course that is not all.

“It’s not really fun but it’s interesting. My mom has 14 kids,” Crawford said. She is part of a very big family, her mother had nine girls and five boys. “We range from 10 years old all the way to 35.”

Brittany Bamber, the new Algebra 2 and Math for Innovators teacher, has come to Permian High School from a small charter school of 111 students over the span of grades 7-12 named Huston Academy in Stephenville, Texas. Spending the last 12 years at Huston Academy, Bamber taught Algebra 1 and 2, Geometry, Math Models, and College Prep.

Being the only math teacher for grades 8-12, Bamber is facing many differences in teaching at Permian High School.

Bamber said that here the teamwork of the other math teachers is beneficial and the supplied materials are nice to have at hand.

Although Bamber was only given a few days to prep for teaching right in the middle of a school year, she says that she is adjusting pleasantly.

Bamber went to Tarleton State University and got her degree in Math and Science, then going on to earning her high school teaching certification.

When asked what was a fun fact about herself, Bamber recalled an endeavor she had in her wrestling days in high school. Bamber said that she had been wrestling a girl with epilepsy when the girl suddenly had a seizure. Bamber thought that she had severely hurt the girl, but turns out she was okay and Bamber even went on to win second place in that meet.