The business department of Blue Springs South has added Mary Maragret Wilkinson to their staff.
This is Wilkinson’s first-time teaching, as she freshly graduated from college.
“I graduated from Missouri State with my bachelor’s in business [education], and then I’m certified in business and marketing to teach,” says Wilkinson.
However, she’s already back at Missouri State getting her master’s.
“Go Bears always,” Wilkinson says. “I’m getting it [her master’s] in educational technology. So, it’s all about programs and softwares that teachers can use in their classroom to build curriculum and to be more innovative and hands on with students.”
Wilkinson is excited to see the different ways the Missouri operates and does DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America), as she grew up in Kansas.
“Kansas doesn’t take it [DECA] as serious. I’ve heard Missouri takes it more serious. So, I’ll be curious to see once, competition season starts to see how strict it actually is,” says Wilkinson.
For DECA, she’s the third sponsor under Shelli Ray and Darin Wisner.
“I’m very excited to kind of take a backseat for my first year and just see how it works here. And then hopefully next year, I can be more involved,” says Wilkinson.
As a teacher, her main goal is to help her students be successful in the real world.
“I just want to get an impact as many students as I can,” Wilkinson says. “I teach all seniors, and so I want them to be as prepared and as ready as possible for college, workforce, wherever they want to go, and just make them decent, successful handling that. That would be my ultimate goal.”
With teaching, she also has a philosophy for both in her job and in life.
“It’s on my wall. It says, do a little good every day.” Wilkinson says. “Even if I’m not in a good mood, I try to at least do something like one thing positive, or at least each hour of the day, and just see and impact somebody like whether it’s a compliment, whether it’s holding the door open, just anything a little good every day. That’s my motto.”
Wilkinson says that in teaching business, everything is tied to the real world.
“It’s a lot of real-world application is what it is. Business is literally everywhere, every system, every company, every product, comes from, like a business standpoint. And so, I think it’s all about tying it into what the students are currently interested in,” she says.
When not doing schoolwork, which includes getting her master’s, she enjoys watching TV and loves reading.
“I love reading… currently my obsession is ‘Dancing with the Stars’, the new season. It’s so good, and so I watch a lot of TV,” says Wilkinson.
Wilkinson also really loves and cares for her family.
“I have three sisters, and they’re all older than me, and so we’re all spread out all over the place, but I’m in KC, and one of my other sisters lives on the Kansas side,” says Wilkinson.
She says that they are her biggest fans and support.
“They are just my biggest rocks,” Wilkinson says, “I will call them when I have a good day, they hear the stories of teaching are literally endless. … They are just there for me through ups and downs, the good and the bad.”
Wilkinson says that she would like to be remembered as a teacher that is both fun, but also gets work done.
“The teacher that, like, yes, class is fun, and yes, you should enjoy being in my class, but also, you have to learn something, right? And it’s not always fun and games all the time. There is an academic piece, you are here for an education. So, I want them to remember me as fun but also impactful,” says Wilkinson.
