Meet The Teacher: Mrs. Kallberg-Shroff

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This is Mrs. Kallberg :)

Jalisha Rowen, Staff Writer

Mrs. Kallberg is one of our few AICE Literature teachers here at Santaluces Community High School and she has been happily teaching here at this school for four consecutive years. Originally born in Sweden, Mrs. Kallberg graduated from Marymount Manhattan College and The New School For Social Research in New York, majoring in International Studies and receiving a Master’s and PhD in Developmental Psychology.

“Do you have any hidden talents?”

Mrs. Kallberg states that she doesn’t think she has any hidden talents besides being able to speak her native language, which is Swedish, combined with her  fluent English. So out of curiosity, I asked her to say something to me in Swedish, in which she replies, “Hur Mar Du” which means “How are you?” (Now you know a new phrase in Swedish, you’re welcome.)

 “What is the best part of working here?”

“You guys.” This reply is so simple yet so sweet because being a teacher, students can be really hard to deal with especially with the constant use of cell phones, the untamed bickering, and the lack of discipline. Teachers have it just as hard as any job trying to control different personalities and attitudes 24/7  without any appreciation nor acknowledgment given to them. For a teacher like Mrs. Kallberg to still be happy with their job and being understanding with children without giving up or thrashing out, is truly amazing.

“What is the hardest part of being a teacher?”

Mrs. Kallberg states that it’s getting harder now, especially with the newest AI chatbots. (Now, I won’t say an example of this because some people may abuse and try to use them, but basically it’s an artificial intelligence computer program that is able to write out responses to questions and even essays in a very human and thorough form.) This can cause an excessive amount of cheating which makes the teachers’ job harder and having to make them use different resources to see if there has been foul play done on every student’s work. However, Mrs. Kallberg doesn’t see all the bad in this because it can help teachers make tests if provided with the right information.

“Why does she think there is a lack of teachers and a shortage of substitutes?” 

According to “The Florida Education Association” it states, “There are several reasons for the shortages: Pay, with Florida ranking in the bottom five nationally for teacher salaries and many of our education staff professionals earning poverty wages. Lack of support. Lack of flexibility in instruction and the need to “teach to the test.” Lack of multi-year contracts for teachers, which means that qualified, experienced educators face getting a “pink slip” every year and overcrowded classrooms.”

Now, although all of these factors are contributors to the issue on this very noticeable shortage, Mrs. Kallberg’s personal opinion on this topic is that there is a huge shortage because of the vast amount of underappreciation when it comes to teachers. She claims there are a lot of hours put on the side at home when it comes to lesson plans and grading and much more that go overlooked.

(Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t like putting in a lot of work just to not get appreciated. It’s offensive, honestly.)

Before Mrs. Kallberg was teaching the Chiefs here at Santaluces Community High School, she was a college professor in New York and a research psychologist writing papers and books. She taught PhD classes to graduates and undergraduates who wanted to become psychologists. And just to clarify what graduates and undergraduates are, according to “Diffen,” it states, “A graduate program is a 1-6-year college master’s degree program, for someone who already has a bachelor’s degree. An undergraduate program is a 4-year college bachelor’s degree program, or a 2-year associate’s degree program.” Mrs. Kallberg chose to major in this subject because she states that she was “interested in how people think” and “how they work.”

Mrs. Kallberg says that she switched to being a high school teacher and not staying as a psychology professor because it was too much. She’d have to meet each student twice a week for an hour while not being able to have a stable place to be at and have to drive up to five different places and schools morning and night. Being a high school teacher has given her a little more leniency to spend time with her daughter and husband while also being able to interact with students more; she gets to know them individually.

When getting to know someone, you want to ask and know everything about them. So here’s a little bit of the non-teacher side of Mrs. Kallberg.

“What do you do on a Saturday when you aren’t being a teacher?”

Mrs. Kallberg says that she doesn’t have much time to chill and be to herself; however, when she’s not dealing with grading papers and taking care of her daughter, she likes to read. She states, “I was a book nerd as a kid, but then for fifteen years I stopped reading and I just got back on it and I love it.” This seems to happen to a lot of people.

Mrs. Kallberg  also states that she likes horseback riding, saying that it’s on her bucket list. She states “I’m trying to do things before I get too old.” Additionally, Mrs. Kallberg likes to ice skate. She claims that she used to do competitive ice skating when she was a kid and although she wasn’t any Tonya Harding, she claims that she was pretty good at it.

Mrs. Kallberg states that the two words to describe her would be restless and curious.