Although history teacher Megan Saia originally studied to be a lawyer, she knew that she would always keep teaching with her. For more than 10 years, she was a special education lawyer in California and tutored students in the bar exam part-time. Although she enjoyed representing families and advocating for special-need services, she realized that she enjoyed her part-time tutoring more, eventually deciding to transition to teaching.
“I taught things like evidence, constitutional law, civil procedure, all sorts of things,” Saia said. “I really, really enjoyed being a teacher, really enjoyed talking with students and helping them struggle through concepts and work on their writing and did not enjoy the other business side of it as much. So I really decided, after more than a decade that what I really loved was the teaching and decided to sort of switch careers.”
Saia’s transition came from her enjoyment of teaching history, but the switch was something new for Saia, as she had to transition from teaching adults one-on-one to teaching a group of teenagers. This pushed her to get her master’s in teaching at UCI to expand her pedagogy, equipping her with new teaching strategies she could use to adjust to this new setting.
Despite this, Saia still tried to incorporate some of her tutoring experiences from before into her classroom, often conferencing with her students one-on-one as she understood that sometimes it could be hard to ask questions in a group setting. This personalized guidance has given them the tools they need to improve, according to freshman Isabella Rosely.
“When writing this paper about the Industrial Revolution, I was really iffy about the citations, but she definitely helped me out on that, and I felt comfortable enough to seek her guidance,” Rosely said.
Saia’s experience with law often supplements the way she teaches some of the history curriculum. When reviewing some of the legal aspects of her lessons, Saia said she was able to provide some additional information through her experience with law, such as during a unit the New Deal in her Honors American History class.
“Even though we’re not in passion civics yet, and these are sophomores and not seniors, I really am trying to stretch them and push them to start to understand and wrestle with these concepts,” Saia said. “I think that they’re not just legal concepts, and they’re not just concepts that we’re learning in history class or civics class, but they are concepts that are really important in being an informed citizen.”
Although Saia admits some may see her career change as unexpected, she believes that it was one of the best decisions she ever made.
“I love it,” Saia said. “I think that the students at Portola are really wonderful. We have a lot of fun. They work hard, and I appreciate that. I know that a lot of people think it’s an odd switch to have made, but I’m so happy that I did it. I think it was definitely the right choice.”
