First-year physical education (PE) teacher Katie Mulatz, from West Chicago Community High School, has already made a difference in the classroom. Mulatz brings positive energy to the school and genuinely loves her students. Her bright smile shines as she watches them play, and she creates friendships that keep them motivated throughout the school day, from the first gym class of the day to the very last. Mulatz’s passion for teaching is contagious, and it is clear to everyone that she loves her job.

 As a young teacher, she can relate well to high school students. Mulatz is of a similar age to her students; as a young teacher, she has a deeper insight into teenage feelings and humor.

“Occasionally, I find myself understanding what you guys are talking about. I would say the jokes and memes have all resurfaced from when I was in high school,” Mulatz said. 

Still, while simultaneously attending Illinois State University, she taught kindergarten through fifth grade for half of her student teaching experience, splitting her time between two elementary schools in Addison, because the students did not have PE every day. 

Mulatz graduated in May of this year and was then hired by District 94.

”I’ve never experienced anything like West Chicago, just the way everyone interacts, and how much of a true community it is, and how involved everyone is in this town. It blows my mind because I went to high school where kids didn’t grow up all together in the same town,” Mulatz said.

During the week, she plans what the students are going to do throughout the day. She teaches freshmen, juniors, and seniors. Typically, Mulatz will look at what unit she has coming up and the rules she has to cover; she then plans her lessons out by the week so she can adapt to her students’ needs. Students at Wego say she is very detailed in explaining the rules, so everyone knows what they need to do.

“She’s very kind, which makes it a lot easier to enjoy class. She’s very patient when it comes to teaching us things like new games and warm-ups. And when we have questions, she does a great job answering them,” senior Hadassah Ramirez said. 

For Mulaltz, it is important to make PE fun for the students who are less interested in sports. She splits up teams into competitive and non-competitive so the people who get anxiety can actually enjoy games, and the ones who go all out can enjoy them too. Many students report that they feel very comfortable in class.

“Ms. Mulatz is a good PE teacher because she interacts very well with her students. She motivated us to do well in PE and helped us be athletic,” senior Jessica Correa said. 

Mulatz hopes that kids know she genuinely cares about them and their well-being. She encourages them to take these values beyond West Chicago and apply them in their everyday lives, such as teamwork and communication. 

“I would say the one thing I wish kids—like, students—would take away is that I genuinely care about them and their well-being…Everything I do for them is for them to take it beyond West Chicago and somehow use it in their everyday lives. Especially in PE and maybe not even just the exercising and the playing games, but the teamwork and communication and just working together,” Mulatz said.

Her favorite thing to see in her class is that everyone is engaged and having fun.

“You guys had so much enthusiasm when we did floor hockey, I would just walk and smile,” Mulatz said.  

She played a bit of slow-pitch softball with teacher and coach Mary Kate Dieter in the fall, and looks forward to playing with her students during class as well. 

She is also very passionate about pickleball and would love to sponsor a club if one were to form at WEGO. 

Perhaps Mulatz’s love for physical education stems from her childhood. Mulatz grew up as the only girl in a set of triplets. 

“I actually loved it. I got my own room. My brothers had to share a room. I got all my own stuff. It was great when I was little, and that’s honestly how I got into athletics in the first place. Every single day, I would come home from school and play basketball in the backyard, or play wiffle ball or whatnot,” Mulatz said.

She was a busy child growing up in Lombard, Illinois, playing many sports with her brothers.  

She attended Glenbard East High School in her teens. In her freshman and sophomore years, she played volleyball, basketball, and softball. During her senior and junior years, she dropped volleyball for golf. 

“Honestly, since I was very, very young. My parents always had me involved in something,” Mulatz said. “My parents believed very strongly in keeping me as involved as possible, from a young age. They also let me try any sport or activity I wanted as a kid to ensure I found something I enjoyed.”