Dixon harmonizes teaching and family

Teacher, mother, sail boat enthusiast; what can’t Business teacher Susan Dixon do? Growing up seeing the stress teaching put on her mother, father and grandmother, though, being a teacher was the last thing she wanted to do. Nevertheless, when she became a mother she wanted a job where she could spend time with family. With the encouragement of her mentor, who constantly told her she was made to be a teacher, she’s now been teaching for over 20 years.

The most difficult transition from managing a retail store to teaching for Dixon was time management (although she hates grading the most) but through trial and error and experience on the job she’s learned how to prioritize and found what’s important to get done first.

Of course, she had help from a good mentor; her former typing teacher and now friend, Sandra Bailey. Bailey was the head of Dixon’s department when she first started at West Florence; Bailey showed her how to organize and how to best help her students.

Dixon had an interesting connection to West Florence when she was moving to Florence from Myrtle Beach; her old principal was ex roommates with the principal at West Florence at the time who was in need of a teacher.

Throughout the years, the students that have stood out to Dixon are the ones who are passionate about the subject of her class and the ones who take more than one of her classes.

Outside of school, Dixon has a passion for sailing.

“It’s like camping on water,” said Mrs. Dixon

Her in-laws originally got her into sailboats. When she started sailing she felt so relaxed she had to buy one. Now she takes yearly trips on sea to many places, including the Outer Banks. She finds that out in the sea everything is much quieter. Dixon has dreams of living on the sea when she retires, just as long as she can get her husband on board.

Dixon has three children, with ages ranging from 18-27, two boys and one girl. Her youngest, Lila Dixon, is a senior student here at West Florence. Dixon has also been an exchange student host mother for six years and has had a wonderful experience hosting kids from all over the world. She first got into hosting exchange students when one of her sons made friends with an exchange student who ended up asking her family to host him. Dixon has made wonderful friends from host family parties. Even through the difficulty this year has brought she still finds joy in being a virtual host parent to a teen in Lebanon.

Dixon said she is most inspired by her mother, who was tough but kind. Her mother was the main financial support in her family. She is inspired by how her mother balanced work and her family. It seems like Dixon has been following in those footsteps very well!