Just like her Apple Pencil and iPad, Mrs. Chelsea Filipowski is always charged up and ready to explain depths of math to her students in classes AP Precalculus and AP Calculus AB.

Mrs. Filipowski has always been a teacher at heart, and since high school, she’s loved helping her friends out in math classes, specifically precalculus. “It [math] came easier to me and I was able to explain it in a way that they understood as well,” she said. Although she loved helping her friends during high school, Mrs. Filipowski was not totally set on a career in teaching. However, after visiting her aunt who taught special education classes, she saw a future for herself in education. 

Mrs. Filipowski grew up in the small town of Mt. Pleasant, NC, which played a significant role in leading her to choose teaching as a career. “Coming from a small high school, I had really good relationships with all of my teachers, which definitely helped influence my choice,” she explained. Specifically, Mrs. Filipowski credits her high school calculus teacher as a major inspiration in her career, elaborating that when she reached out to her teacher after deciding to begin her career in math education, her teacher showed great support and encouragement. In 2010, Mrs. Filipowski graduated from North Carolina State University with a bachelor of science in mathematics education, and since then, she has devoted her education and passion of math to teaching. 

Throughout her 14 years of teaching, Mrs. Filipowski has found her favorite part of her job to be building relationships with her students. Math has always come easily to her, but she understands that everyone learns differently. Therefore, Mrs. Filipowski finds helping her students gain or regain confidence in the classroom to be the most encouraging part of teaching. “I know that math isn’t for everyone, but I enjoy helping students see that they can do math if they approach it with the right attitude and efforts,” she explains. 

Mrs. Filipowski is a teacher devoted to supporting students both inside and outside of her classes. For example, she has used her love for calculations to support student athletes for the past 11 years as the assistant bookkeeper of the Green Hope High School Boosters Club. Mrs. Filipowski’s support does not fully revolve around math too— she was once the junior varsity cheerleading team during her first six years as a Wake County Public School System teacher. 

Mrs. Filipowski is looking forward to taking the next big step in her career. Over the coming years, she aims to become a National Board Certified Teacher, a teacher who has worked to meet demanding national education standards set by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), to expand her abilities in helping her students succeed and make an even greater impact in their lives.