This week’s teacher spotlight is Jamie Cutright. She is the history teacher here at PHS. She started teaching at PHS in the fall of 2014. Ms. Cutright graduated high school from Champaign Centennial High School in 2010. After high school she attended college at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) for 4 years. Ms. Cutright did her student teaching in the spring of 2014 at Edwardsville High School.

Palestine was Ms. Cutright’s first interview after graduation, she said, “they called and told me that I got the job before I got home. I thought that since they were the first to give me the job that I would start my career and next chapter of my life here.” Ms. Cutright’s favorite part of teaching at Palestine is her amazing colleagues and students. She knew that she wanted to be a teacher from a very young age. She said, “my parents bought me a chalkboard one Christmas and I would play “school” to a bunch of paper name tags. I always knew that I wanted to teach, but it wasn’t until high school that I wanted to teach history.”

In Ms. Cutright’s free time she enjoys reading, spending time with her family and watching St. Louis Cardinals games. Ms. Cutright has traveled to Hawaii, Boston, and Washington D.C. with her history club students. She has also been to Disney World five times. She would love to travel to Rome, Italy. She said, “I love learning about Ancient Rome so I would love to experience it in person.” Two things that are on Ms. Cutright’s bucket list are to visit every MLB stadium and every national park in the United States.