By David Bolles
CCC Journalism Program
BLACKWOOD – English teacher Martha Bachman finishes off her 9:30 a.m. English class with a smile as students leave the room preparing for an essay that is due next period. She has been doing this at Camden County College for the last 22 years and taught in a public school in Bensalem, Pa. before that for 5 years.
Bachman grew up in the small town of Dallas, Pa. in a sheltered environment. She described the reason she wanted to be a teacher was because of her favorite teacher in third grade being her English teacher. “Ever since then I’ve wanted to be an English teacher, that, plus the fact that I hated math and science,” Bachman stated while laughing.
Students really enjoy her classes as well and she is a very liked teacher at Camden County College. “She is one of the nicest teachers I have had in a really long time,” stated Wendy Nguyen, a Camden County College freshman who is in her class.
Also students said they really feel like they are learning in her class. Michael McGridian is also in her morning English class and he added, “I really feel like she would help any student if they came and asked for it. That’s a really nice quality to have.”
Bachman stated her motto as a teacher is to never give up on a student. She said she has carried this motto with her throughout her 22 years at Camden County College and she considers this her most important task as a teacher.
Bachman also described her most successful moment as a teacher was not an award or a promotion but a student. She values every moment she spends in the classroom as a time in which the student comes first and her job is to see them succeed. Her most successful moment she described is when she can take a student who is doing badly in class and has little hope for success and turn them around and watch them succeed.
This attitude is also why she said she feels like she has not worked a day in her life because she is so focused on her job. Bachman stated, “If you are going to be a teacher, you have to love it. You don’t get into this job for the money, you get into it for the satisfaction of being a teacher.”