The 2024-2025 school year has introduced numerous new staff members to Arcadia High School (AHS). Ms. Natalie Murray will be joining the Special Education Department.
Ms. Murray attended Brigham Young University and Provo College for her undergraduate years, and finished graduate school at Loma Linda University. She majored in Communication disorders, now commonly known as Speech Language Pathology. Since college, Ms. Murray wanted to teach, recognizing this after doing externships in a medical and school based setting.
When asked about how she defines student success, Ms. Murray said, “For me, working in a special education population, definitely would be helping them be as independent as possible and being able to advocate for themselves. I think that’s my epitome of success, is them being able to advocate for themselves.”
Handling conflicts and challenging student behavior is another part of working as a teacher. Ms. Murray does so by recognizing, empathizing, and working on students’ behavior support plans. Feedback from parents or teachers also helps her to understand and solve the problem. She believes being collaborative is the key to success, especially when a student has behavioral challenges. Being a teacher and working with teenagers can be a tiring, but rewarding job.
“I worked with people as little as 18 months to 22 years old, and so I think what’s been rewarding looks different depending on age,” Ms. Murray said. “With the adult transition population, I think it’s most rewarding to see them be happy and excited about being able to communicate whatever it is they need, and teaching them to advocate. Advocacy is so huge for me when it comes to middle school and above. Obviously for the littles, it’s always hearing them actually saying a word…It’s very exciting.”
Providing a glimpse into her personal life, some of Ms. Murray’s favorite things to do outside of work include weightlifting and hiking. She also loves trying a good restaurant with her family.
Ms. Murray reflects on how working with students has impacted her personally. She feels that doing this job allows her to be more compassionate, empathetic, and a lot more patient.
“I feel like it’s made me really appreciative of all that I have and my ability to be able to help families,” said Ms. Murray. “Patience was something I struggled with as a youth, but now I feel like I have an endless amount of patience. That’s definitely the biggest thing students have taught me.”
Working with students has given her another benefit: finding joy in the little things. Ms. Murray expresses her gratitude for the personal growth and life-long lessons learned in her career as a teacher.
