March 25, 2021
The following story is the third installment in the Tiger Staff Spotlight series where DSISD features staff members from each of the district’s seven campuses.
While playing Trivial Pursuit as a child with her grandmother, Dripping Springs Elementary kindergarten teacher Lindsey Henry grew to love trivia and pursued being a life-long learner while researching topics she knew little about.
After being a fan of Jeopardy! for many years, Henry received a once-in-a-lifetime call in December of 2016 to be one of 16 teachers to appear on the show as part of a teacher tournament.
“In 2016, I finally got an email after taking an online quiz saying they wanted me to come and audition,” Henry said. “You play a mock game and take another 50-question quiz and I thought I did well in the game and in my interview. That December, I got a call saying they wanted me to come be in the teacher tournament.”
Henry, at the time a first-grade teacher at Waco ISD’s Dean Highland Elementary, said she brushed up on several topics to prepare for the upcoming show in three months.
“In the trivia world, we all have our strengths and those things not in our wheelhouse as much,” Henry said. “I read the almanac a little and looked up things I wasn’t sure about. My strengths are movies, pop culture, TV, sports, geography and less with art, opera, and classical music. Jeopardy! is based so much on luck because you never know who you’re going to play and what their strengths are or what your categories are going to be.”
Facing a high school teacher from Illinois and another from California, Henry climbed to $7,400 in a competitive game before losing the money on an arts question.
“I ended up not winning unfortunately but had a really good time,” Henry said. “The best part was getting to talk to and get to know people who are also fellow teachers. We’re all still friends and have a Facebook group to keep in touch.”
Although she didn’t win on the show, Henry was awarded $5,000 (the minimum winnings in the tournament) and was given a $2,500 grant from Farmers Insurance for her classroom.
Henry arrived at Dripping Springs Elementary in the fall of 2018 after her husband, Nick, took a faculty position at the University of Texas. With her, she brought more than 10 years of teaching experience at the elementary level.
“I love it here in Dripping Springs,” Henry said. “I’m definitely a kindergarten person at heart, it’s what I have my most years of experience in. I love the growth they show at this age. This school just has something special about it, you feel it the second you walk in – the positivity, the comradery, the leadership, and ownership students have of their education. I’ve never experienced that at any district I’ve worked in before.”
