Biomed teacher Darshanpreet Gill’s appreciation for the school community continues to stay strong as she enjoys her sixth year here. Gill works as a CTE teacher, specifically teaching Human Body Systems and Biomedical Innovations. She used to teach middle school but likes teaching high school science a lot.
When Gill was offered a job to work at a high school, she got the choice to work either at Franklin or McDaniel. After spending half a day at each school, she knew that she wanted to work at McDaniel because of how amazing the students were.
“I really like seeing how kids can grow, not just academically but as humans,” she said. “I like being a trusted adult in that journey, and I’m always so proud of the changes I see by the end of the year.”
It makes Gill feel joyful when past students come to visit and give her updates on how their lives are going. Gill makes important connections with her students and likes to keep in touch with them, including the ones she had in the past.
Working at the school has helped her be more sensitive to other people’s life situations. She explained how she grew up super sheltered, so she didn’t realize there were so many ways to grow up. She realizes that some people aren’t excited to go on week-long breaks because school is the only way they can get full meals. Or that some people have all their family living in a different part of the world.
“You can’t really judge someone’s behavior because you don’t know their backstory,” she said. “I always try to be kind first and learn, and that’s just made me a better person.”
In her CTE classes, labs, dissections and activities such as field trips are things Gill enjoys doing with her students.
“I love how hands on it is,” she said. “Even if you’re not going to be a scientist, it’s
interesting to learn about your body.”
Sophomore Ibtisam Noor, who is in Human Body Systems, is exploring different surgeon career pathways through the class. She loves how the class is not just doing lectures and notes but also doing different projects and being able to move around the classroom.
“I enjoy the hands-on work stuff like the dissections we do, like the sheep brain, cow eye, and all the fun stuff we do,” she said.
Noor also enjoys Gill’s company and how she acts in class. She feels that Gill’s sarcasm is very funny and enjoys her jokes around her students.
Senior Zoe Stenstrom, a student in Biomedical Innovations, likes the energy Gill brings to the classroom.
“Her enthusiasm for teaching and hands-on labs makes me excited to engage in classwork,” she said. “She is direct in communication and sets high expectations for us, but also makes time to get to know her students and have fun.”
Stenstrom wanted to take the class because it lets students design research projects and work in groups for several weeks at a time instead of more frequent individual assignments. She also enjoys the hand-on aspects of the class.
“We recently finished a fetal pig dissection which involved incision and suture work, as well as the handling and measurement of internal organs,” she said.
Being in a class with like-minded people is something that Stenstrom has enjoyed. She explained that it provided a sense of unity in the biomedical pathway and allowed her to make friends with people she might have not otherwise met.
Though Stenstrom has not decided on her specialization yet in the medical field, she is most interested in pediatric trauma and the general surgery field. For the Biomedical Pathways class she is looking forward to an upcoming experiment about SPF and skin cancer.
Gill loves what she does for her students. Whether it’s joking around, making them feel happy, or teaching them all about the human body, she is thankful for her job.
“I’m very lucky with the content that I teach,” she said.
