Catherine Manning will be joining the Darlington Community this fall to teach Spanish to grades 6-8. She holds a B.A. in Spanish from Mercer and studied abroad at Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador.
“I think it's very important to make students feel comfortable making mistakes and learning from them during the language learning process,” said Manning. “No one starts out fluent in a new language. I also believe it's important to engage different learning styles in the classroom, giving students the chance to learn in the way that suits them best.”
After completing her freshman year of college, Manning was placed in a community missions center in Houston, Texas, where she served as a missions intern. There, she helped teach the community children and realized that she has a passion for teaching. Throughout college, she took every opportunity available to teach. She taught remedial courses to youth through Campus Clubs of Macon, volunteered at Young Life Greater Macon and served as missions fundraising chair for Mercer's Baptist Collegiate Ministries.
Manning speaks Spanish and French and has taught both in the states and abroad. Most recently, she was North American language and culture assistant at Palma de Mallorca in Balearic Islands, Spain, where she worked with students ages 8-16.
“I have had a lot of opportunities to work with different cultures, both in the states and abroad, and I'm excited to bring my experiences to my classroom," Manning said. "Languages have really opened up the world to me, and I hope to foster in my students a love of language that will guide them through similar opportunities.”
Manning recently got married and moved to Rome. Her husband, Evan, is currently finishing medical school through the Medical College of Georgia as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force. In her free time, she enjoys reading, trying new recipes, hiking and traveling.
"As I take on my new teaching position, I'm really looking forward to meeting my new students and getting involved with the Darlington community in general,” said Manning. “From what I have seen of the staff at Darlington, it's a very supportive environment for both the teachers and the students, and I love that. I think that the efforts to collaborate as a staff are wonderful, and I'm excited to be able to learn from what seems like a very wonderful and passionate group of educators.”
Editor's Note: This article was written by Abby Sklar ('18), who is serving as an intern in the Communication Office this summer.
