By Corbyn Aquino
The classroom had always felt a little too small for the big dreams she envisioned.
At 40 years old, with 19 years of teaching under her belt, English teacher Amanda Craw has visited 30 countries. Her inspiration for traveling has not subsided.
“Traveling is something that helps me as a pretty shy person to come out of my shell and become self-reliant,” Craw said.
She is the head of the English department at Delta and also teaches English Honors 9 and Ball State English 103 and 104.
After watching her roommates at Depauw University pursue traveling in the educational world, Craw decided she wanted to dip into it, too.
She took a trip to East London where Craw decided to attend Queen Mary University of London for a semester.
After getting a taste for traveling, Craw decided that she could find a hobby in the topic.
Of all the places she has visited, she believes Berlin, Germany was one of the most memorable.
In Berlin, Craw had the opportunity to visit Checkpoint Charlie, one of the best-known border crossings between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.
During her trip, Craw also biked around the city and explored different universities and famous underground libraries.
She got to explore Bebelplat, an underground library memorial in Berlin. It is an empty library that is symbolic of the mass book burnings during the Holocaust period
Berlin is just one of Craw’s most memorable trips, though. She also was fond of Venice, a city in Italy. Venice was one of the main cities that brought out Craw’s love for seas and oceans, as there are 167 islands in the city.
She spent most of her time cruising around the islands on a water bus, a boat that carries people from island to island.
Craw decided to bring her traveling desires to the classroom and has taken students to eight different countries to explore literature and history in a new way.
One of the countries Craw has taken students to is France, where she and her students experienced more than the different types of literature.
While on the trip Craw ran into a roadblock at the supermarket while preparing for a picnic with her students. As Craw and her students were in the market, a resident took a fall while choking and was unresponsive for a moment.
Craw’s main focus was to navigate the students away so they wouldn’t have to experience the tragedy.
This is just one example of Craw’s concern for her students.
“It is nice to know she (Craw) truly cares about her students,” senior Zane Cline said.
Craw has known since middle school that she wanted to pursue a career in teaching.
After receiving the Lilly Scholarship in high school, Craw decided she wanted to attend Depauw University to continue her academic career.
She had a chance to also continue her athletic career but decided that she was burnt out on sports and just focused on academics.
Craw received 10 varsity sports letters while taking part in swimming, soccer and tennis at Muncie Southside High School.
She also held the record for the 100 breaststroke at Southside.
Craw kicked off her teaching career at Frankfort Middle School, where she taught writing development for 7th and 8th-grade students.
At Frankfort Craw also was the English department chair, wrote and directed plays, and worked with kids in the tutoring program.
After teaching there for seven years Craw decided she would like to be closer to home.
She originally applied to teach at Cowan, Jay County or Muncie Southside. But she chose to keep looking and found a home at Delta High School.
“The quality of education at Delta is just different,” Craw said. “It’s indescribable.”
