Mairi Wohlgemuth, or as her students call her, Ms. Woogie, began teaching at Amador in the fall of 1994. She started her career teaching Freshmen Global Studies and regular US History. After six years, when the position of AP US History teacher became available, she decided to give it a try.

“I really enjoyed covering so much ground in a single year and learning how best to prepare students for the test,” said Wohlgemuth. “I remember reading the book along with the students that first year. I was only maybe a chapter ahead of them the whole time, but I learned a lot!”

Wohlgemuth has always had an affinity for history. She earned her college degree in anthropology and archaeology, which piqued her interest because of the story that the unearthed artifacts told.

“I love that [history] is a story,” said Wohlgemuth. “I enjoy telling stories, jokes, puns, and laughing while learning at the same time! History is about people, their choices, discoveries, and interactions.”

Teaching was part of Wohlgemuth’s life for nearly all of it. Her mother was a teacher, and she herself began teaching at a young age.

“When I was in 6th grade myself, I taught my best friend all the steps to a Scottish sword dance so we could perform it together at the end-of-the-year assembly,” said Wohlgemuth. “I then began teaching summer camps after high school in color guard and knew I had a knack for breaking down complicated tasks into easy-to-digest parts.”

Wohlgemuth is highly aware that APUSH is a very difficult course. That’s why she obliges herself to engage her students in different ways.

“Because APUSH covers so much content the main strategy I use is the lecture,” said Wohlgemuth. “I have become an entertaining lecturer over the years to try to keep my class from becoming bored. To make history come alive, I also interject plenty of video clips. I try to implement an activity for each unit for students to dive deeper into topics, like the Progressive Era Speed Dating.”