Science teacher juggles family, coaching and teaching

Kristen Thomson watches her 3-year-old son, Spencer, out of the corner of her eye as he plays on the bleachers on the pool deck. Meanwhile, she explains a set to a group of JV swimmers.
Thomson’s multitasking results from her hectic life in which she juggles teaching, coaching and family commitments.

Thomson has been teaching and coaching the boys’ and girls’ swim teams since she first started teaching at Saratoga in 2000. She teaches two periods of biology and three periods of AP Environmental Science.

Balancing the team and her classes was always a challenge, but in recent years Thomson has added a whole new level of responsibility.

Thomson gave birth to her two children, Spencer and Isla Lily in 2008 and 2010, respectively.

“It was tough without kids. It was tougher with one and exponentially tougher with two,” she said.

Now, Thomson balances parenting, coaching and teaching in a world of constant scheduling conflicts. She says that the key to maintaining a busy schedule is good communication.

“I let my [students] know that I’m human and I think that they appreciate that,” she said. “I think the fact that they know what is going on and I keep them in my life is really the key thing. My students this year have been incredibly forgiving.”

Junior Rebecca Chen respects Thomson for her ability to balance her three commitments.

“I think like she’s the definition of a twenty-first century woman,” Chen said. “She definitely does a lot of parenting. She also has to deal with the kids in the pool, the APES kids and the bio kids. I’ve known her for a really long time and there isn’t anything that I don’t like about her.”

Luckily, Thomson has support at swimming from her fellow head coach Christian Bonner and three assistant coaches. She says that having back-up in swimming is nice when something comes up last minute and she cannot attend practice.

While family is her first priority, Thomson’s passion for working with kids drives her to continue coaching and teaching, despite her busy schedule. Weighing the pros and cons of teaching and coaching, she said that she loves each job for different reasons.

On the swim team she feels that she develops a less formal relationship with her athletes, as she is more laid-back and tends to joke around more.

“I love getting to know kids outside of the classroom,” she said. “If you just look at our team this year, it is full of characters. In a classroom situation, you kind of have to water it down so that everyone can learn. It’s nice to see people’s true colors.”

Thomson finds the rewards in teaching as she introduces students to topics about which she is passionate and watches her students grow intellectually. But the best parts of both jobs are the relationships that she forms with students.

“Both of [the jobs] let me get to know students and, to me, that’s the most important thing,” she said. ”You teach because you like it and that’s doubly [true] with coaching, because you put in so much time and you really don’t get paid much at all.”

Thomson, along with many other teacher-coaches, takes the time out of her busy life to coach school sports because she loves what she is doing, not because she wants the money.

“The day that I coach for the money or the day that I teach for solely myself and not for my students is the day I should retire,” Thomson said. “You have to be in it for the students.”