Portrait image of Raven Cole
Raven Cole

Raven Cole describes herself as a “Woman of contradictions, for sure.”  The first-year University View Academy high school Business and Technical Writing teacher says, “I am a book nerd. I love to read, I love to write.”  But her main form of transportation is a motorcycle.  She says it “Wakes me up in the morning, and I’m ready to teach after riding to work.”  In high school, she was in the Library Club but rode dirt bikes for fun.             

She also admits being an “…introvert who has to pretend to be an extrovert.”  You wouldn’t know that after talking with her. Raven’s personality is infectious, and it spills over into her teaching.  Armed with an English Degree concentrating on Education, she describes Business English as “Incredible.  It’s life-based, and the students bring their life-lessons from outside to inside the classroom.”   She enjoys seeing her students “… articulate the knowledge they already have and build on it.”   

Raven confessed that when she started teaching at University View Academy, it was “terrifying” because she had to learn the technology of doing online school, but is now  “loving it” and enjoys the live sessions and conversations she has with her students.  There is no loss in translation even though “Kids talk through their keyboards, rather than face to face,” she says.  

While she’s on her computer camera doing live sessions, her students sometimes get a glimpse of her two dogs and cat.  She tells the story of how her cat got the name, Frankenstein.  Raven says she was teaching about the Mary Shelley book where scientist Victor Frankenstein created a hideous creature through an unorthodox experiment.  But the cat attacked and tried to destroy the book.  She says, “My students know my animals, and they have interrupted live sessions.”   But the brief detour also makes for “…awesome conversations” with her students she says with a chuckle.  As she relates the story, she admits she can be a talker. A woman of contradictions, indeed.      

Search UVA