Gutberlet instills valuable lessons within her students every day. photo by Evelyn Jackson
Margaret Gutberlet steps up to the job of the new Health teacher at TJ.
Denver Public Schools recently stated that, starting with the graduating class of 2027, students will be required to take a health class. Due to the sudden course addition, Thomas Jefferson High School was in need of someone to teach this class to its students. Maggie Gutberlet was hired to work at TJ at the start of 2025 as the Comprehensive Health teacher.
Gutberlet grew up near Baltimore, Maryland, and attended University of Maryland. However, Gutberlet is not completely new to Denver, Colorado. “I moved to Colorado in August of 2019 to teach here [in Denver]. I really love it [here].” Unfortunately, her first year of teaching was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This meant her first few years teaching and living in Denver were living during quarantine, but this did not dull Denver’s impression on her. Since the pandemic, she has found joy in visiting Red Rocks and hiking.
Gutberlet knew that she wanted to teach since she was a child. “Starting in 3rd grade, that’s when I realized that I wanted to be a teacher. I changed my mind a couple of times but I knew by the end of college that this is what I want to do,” she explained. Gutberlet credits her decision to teach to the fact that “I’m really passionate about learning, I like to learn myself, and I think that school was a safe place for me when I was a kid, so I wanted to be a part of that safe place for kids as an adult.”
Working at TJ is Gutberlet’s introduction to teaching high school students. “The school I was at before for the past three years was Merrill Middle School, and then before that I taught at McGlone Academy.” Besides the location change, Gutberlet stated that “teaching middle school is not all that different from high schoolers.” She mentions that maturity is more apparent within high schoolers, as it is easier to have a reasonable conversation with them, but Gutberlet took some habits with her from her days teaching middle schoolers.
“One of the things that works well with both groups is a count down for getting attention, and naming when people are doing the right thing in class. I also have a prize box which I used for my middle schoolers and high schoolers have enjoyed it too.” Comprehensive Health is not only a new course for DPS and its students, this is also Gutberlet’s first time teaching Comprehensive Health. “I was a Special Education teacher for the last six years,” she said. Gutberlet made the switch from teaching special education to teaching Comprehensive Health because “health is a topic that applies to anyone and everyone, no matter what someone decides to do with their lives after high school. I really wanted to help students build their skills in a world that is rapidly changing—and also often try to confuse us, lie to us, or sell us something.”
Comprehensive Health is a class that covers a variety of topics that are useful to many students’ lives. Gutberlet says that Comprehensive Health is “all about building skills.” Gutberlet continued by saying, “Students learn how to do proper research, how to make decisions, how to analyze our influences, and how to advocate.” Comprehensive Health touches on topics that are real and interesting. Students do activities related to topics including alcohol and drug use, relationships, food, and other issues that are relevant to teenagers.
Gutberlet had a lot to take in during her first semester teaching at TJ. She has found that she really appreciates the community that TJ has built. “Both the teachers and the students have made me feel really welcome here at TJ. It can be scary to start a new school as a student or as a teacher, so being welcomed in has been really nice,” she explained. Outside of teaching Health, Gutberlet coaches girls’ field hockey at East High School. She is not currently involved in anything extracurricular within TJ, however she is “looking into starting a club that helps us follow through on the ideas we learned at Challenge Day.” Outside of school, Gutberlet says that she likes to read, Gutberlet has read 64 books this year. Gutberlet also spends time outside and hangs out with her fiancè and her cats.
The class offers incredible information and perspective about the decisions that teenagers make in their everyday lives. Gutberlet has taken on an intimidating job, coming to a new school and teaching a completely new class. However, with the first semester of Health almost over, Gutberlet has done an amazing job in ensuring that the debut of this course goes as smoothly as possible.
