Mrs. Othon is rocking robotics

Lexy Fiegel
November 18, 2009
Filed under Profiles

She’s a science teacher, a mother and coach of the robotics club. Mrs. Mary Jo Othon began teaching in Oklahoma almost nine-years ago.

“I became a science teacher almost by accident. I was a math teacher for the first 10 years, but when we came to Oklahoma the only job I could find was a science, but I was both. Now you couldn’t pay me enough to be a math teacher,” she said.

Othon grew up in Texas and graduated from Texas A & M in College Station, Texas in 1987. She moved to Oklahoma nine-years ago because of her husband’s job.

“Actually, when I went to school I was an engineer,” she said.

When she came here she chose to teach at a private school because of her family.

“Originally because my own children went there, but I think I stuck with it because I can get to know the children better than a public school,” she said.

Othon said she enjoys being a teacher and coaching the First Robotics Team at Kelley.

“I really enjoy teaching physics because it gets me a lot of different people from different classes,” she said.

Othon is a teacher and a mother of three, Emma 14, Zachary 11, and Connor 8, which she said can be difficult to balance.

“I think one of the hardest things is you’re a teacher and you’re dealing with kids all day and when the students leave, your kids come you’re way so you’re always getting onto a kid for something.”

She also teaches physical science.

“She did labs and projects that helped us,” sophomore Emily Hoffman said.

She doesn’t just do book work and worksheets, she does labs and projects too.

“It wasn’t just like work we got to do something. It was still work, but it wasn’t notes and stuff,” sophomore Allie Ortiz said.

She may be a science teacher, but that wasn’t always her subject.

“Math, I was a math kid, I liked physics and chemistry teacher, but math the most,” Othon said.

Like some people, Othon would like to visit places that she’s never been.

“About three weeks throughout all of Australia where you could go to the middle, outback, coast and things like that,” Othon said “Go to space. I want be weightless in space one time.”

She has some plans for when she retires, if she chooses to retire.

“I think I would want to travel to different places. I think I would enjoy that,” Othon said.

She also has some things that she would want to do before she dies.

“I don’t know what I wanna do. I’ve never seen the Grand Canyon. I want see the tourists spots like the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone,” she said.