Teacher Spotlight: Ms. Estrada

By Norma Fruzynski (Sophomore)

For this issue’s edition of Hot Takes, The Eagle Times decided to sit down with Ms. Estrada to ask her about her thoughts on the school’s physical education department! 

She began teaching at Pittsburgh Public Schools in 2010 but it wasn’t until just 5 years ago she joined the Obama community. When Ms. Estrada was asked about her opinions on virtual gym class, she mentioned that she enjoyed it! She taught dance in the 2020-2021 school year and had said that people would submit TikToks or videos of them dancing into schoology, and she liked seeing students have more freedom and creativity with their physical activity in school. However, she did say that although she liked virtual learning, she appreciates getting to see everybody back in the building participating in team settings again. Next, Ms. Estrada was asked about not only the potential upgrades coming to our gymnasium, but also about what improvements could be made to the gym department itself. She said, “It would be nice to not have so many classes at one time…maybe spreading out the schedule more would be helpful.” There have been instances where she has had three 3 classes at one time which can be incredibly chaotic and stressful. She also expressed that her favorite P.E. unit is swimming, which unfortunately didn’t happen this semester because of the swimming pool’s disrepair. She was however very excited to learn about a possible revamp to our gym space and can’t wait to see what happens. When asked about her favorite part about being a gym teacher, Ms. Estrada said that she liked, “having a more relaxed class than an academic classroom setting where kids can kind of let their hair down and have a little bit more fun.” We also couldn’t leave out her mentioning her love for wearing sweatpants to school. Ms. Estrada says that she loves teaching gym class, especially high schoolers, and we are sure the feeling is mutual with her students.