Rainey Carpenter has tackled her new job as Patagonia Union High School language arts and English Language Learner (ELL) instructor with enthusiasm, color, and music. Carpenter is a first-year teacher with fresh energy to match.
Entering Carpenter’s room is an experience, complete with neon lights, music playing in the background, desks arranged in a semi-circle, and bulletin boards filled with colorful posters and collages. Carpenter says she wanted to make students comfortable and happy to be in the room. “This was the Spanish room, and I subbed here last year. I thought it had a bad vibe, and kids would say they didn’t like the room,” she explained. “My mentor Journee Hayes told me that certain rooms carry a certain vibe and that students will walk in and that’s what they’ll feel, even if it’s a different teacher or a different class. The classroom itself carries its own energy. Over the summer, I decided I’m going to have to dramatically change it, so I did.”
Prior to giving birth to her daughter last year, Carpenter was working at the Patagonia Trading Post for three and a half years. She worked with artists, created displays and helped select items for the shop. She had a good eye for what appealed to shoppers and anticipating what they needed before they knew they needed it. She says that also applies to her classroom. “I’ve had so many students say that this is their favorite classroom. That is so really fulfilling,” she said. “And the music works. When I put music on, kids automatically focus. I’ll let them pick their own music as long as it’s appropriate. My seniors prefer to listen to Hispanic music, and then they sing it. And all of a sudden, they’re comfortable. They like to come in here.”
With a variety of classes assigned to her, Carpenter keeps quite busy. She teaches 11th and 12th grade language arts classes for students who are not taking dual credit English classes through the college. “I also teach K-through-12 ELL classes. I have taken the equivalent of a year of ELL training because that’s required to be a teacher in Arizona. My students are just Spanish speaking. In other states where kids are speaking Mandarin and all different kinds of languages, you have to differentiate.
“Because I grew up in Arizona and went to Salpointe High School in Tucson, I had 12 years of Spanish. I’m not fluent, but I’m definitely getting proficient at conversational Spanish. I will use that in class just to help them feel more secure. I don’t need to teach English to them, as most of them know it conversationally.”
“When I put music on, kids automatically focus. I’ll let them pick their own music as long as it’s appropriate. My seniors prefer to listen to Hispanic music, and then they sing it. And all of a sudden, they’re comfortable. They like to come in here.”
Rainey Carpenter
Even with small class sizes, Carpenter has learned that being flexible is essential in education. She was a bit surprised by all the interruptions a teacher has to adapt to during any given day. She said, “Being flexible and adapting as I go is probably something that I anticipated, but it’s more of a daily thing than I thought. Interruptions and schedule changes are not uncommon. In both 11th and 12th, if one person’s gone, it changes everything more than if there were more kids in the class, because we have such an intimate group.”
Despite wanting a family and working for a while in retail, Carpenter said, “I felt called to be a teacher. First, I wanted to go to college and then I realized immediately that I needed to teach high school or secondary. My stepson helped me make the decision. I realized, wow, he’s hilarious and sassy, but he also has such in-depth points of view that you don’t expect. I realized I could definitely teach this group.”
Carpenter has been hired as a teaching associate while finishing up her college requirements through Arizona State University. “I have two semesters of classwork left,” she said, “and then fall 2027 is my student teaching semester.”
Cheerleading is another of Carpenter’s passions, so she has an additional job on the side. “I was a cheerleader in high school and a gymnast before that, so I have been wanting to coach cheerleading since forever really,” she said. “So in the afternoons, I coach cheerleading through Desert Sky Gymnastics and Cheer in Nogales.”
Carpenter acknowledges she is still learning the ropes as a first-year teacher. She works closely with her mentor Journee Hayes, the high school’s language arts teacher.
Hayes said, “I also do all the evaluation for the university. Rainey is right on track. We need to talk about benchmarks next. We go over discipline, the behavior log, and the procedure for Monday mornings, what we do for homecoming week, things like that.”
Hayes is big believer in the mentor program. “We have our (professional development) days at the beginning, but we just can’t cover everything,” she said. “There are so many little things that we miss, so when a mentor is assigned, new teachers know that there is someone they can go to and talk to. The school has done this for a couple years, and I think it’s helped.”