APOPKA, Fla. — A+ Teacher Janelle Doby encourages curiosity and the spirited back-and-forth debate over ideas in her class. 

When it comes to diving into literature, she goes all out to really make sure her students understand what they are learning.

“I think as English teachers we worry that they’re just going to navigate life without asking questions or seeking knowledge and that’s a little terrifying for us and so we kind of like push them to start looking and asking questions,” she said.

Doby is in her element when she is in the classroom. “They do seem eager to learn if they feel that you are eager to teach them,” she said.

She is just as eager to reach her students, too. She changes out her classroom decorations based on the literature that her students are poring over.

“So, we had the hats up because we read Macbeth and we had like the three witches. Shakespeare is the first time they’ve interacted with that kind of language, so I try to make it as approachable as possible,” she explained.

While she is in her third year of teaching, she said being an educator was not her first career choice. “Before I was a teacher, I actually was an accountant for General Motors.”

Now she is in the driver’s seat.

Doby is head of the class and is enjoying steering her students’ learning.

“I like showing the kids that there’s a world outside of the world that they live in. It’s fun to watch them start to peel back layers and realize nothing we read is just surface level. There’s always like a deeper meaning in everything we’re reading, so I really enjoy seeing the light come on for them,” she explained.

“I hope they take away that even if they don’t like reading that they understand that there is a story bigger than all of us in everything that we’ve read.”