Mhs teacher spotlight

Larissa Rees grew up in Boise, Idaho until she was 16, when her family moved to Centerville, Utah. “It was tough to move states in the middle of high school,” said Rees. “But it ended up being a great change. It taught me a lot about resilience and blooming where you’re planted.”

After graduating from Viewmont High School in Bountiful, she attended Utah State University. After a year she transferred to Weber State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in Family Studies and a master’s degree in English literature. “I loved my undergrad English classes so much that when my professors encouraged me to apply for the master’s program, I went for it,” said Rees. “I like to tell people that the master’s program was like a very expensive book club: read a book, discuss, and write a paper on it.” 

Having three young kids while going through the program, her weekly night classes became her “me time.” “I still love book clubs and belong to two of them.” 

Rees said she didn’t go to college with the intention of becoming a teacher. In fact, since she didn’t graduate with a teaching certification, she is currently in the APPEL program to finish up the requirements. “I thought I would try to teach adjunct at Weber State someday, but I was very focused on my young family,” she said. 

In 2022, an opportunity came up to fill in as a long-term sub at Morgan High School for a few months. She thought it was a perfect chance to try out teaching and see if she liked it. “That was a baptism-by-fire experience,” Rees said. “I found that I enjoyed teaching, being in the high school, and connecting with students.” In 2023, I took a part-time position teaching WSU’s concurrent enrollment English classes. She is currently in her second year adding two 11th grade Honors English classes. 

“I feel like I was led to this career path through a series of fortuitous events,” Rees said. “I hope to be able to teach my students something that will stick with them forever so that in 50 years, it will come up and they’ll say, ‘I learned that from Mrs. Rees!’ Honestly, it’ll probably be my conjunction song.”

Reese said she loves teaching novels and grammar, but her favorite part about teaching is building relationships with the students – “when they tell me things about their day and life, or I see them outside of school and they are excited to come say hi!” 

Her husband Jamison, who most people know as Jamo, was born and raised in Morgan. They met while attending USU in Logan playing a rousing game of Sardines. They have been married for 15 years and together they have four kids, three boys and a little girl, ages 12, 10, 8, and 3.

In 2009, they moved to Morgan so Jamo could work with his dad. “I quickly fell in love with the valley and the people and decided this is where we want to raise our family,” she said.

In her spare time, Rees loves to read. Her favorite genres are historical fiction, memoir, and fantasy. She also loves to spend time with her husband and kids. They can often be found at the baseball field watching their kids’ games, boating on the lake, or having family movie nights. In addition, she used to be a freelance editor and still does editing jobs here and there. λ