We have a lot of really great teachers here at McCracken County High School. But not only are they great teachers, they are super cool people outside of school too! One of these hidden gems of MCHS is Alex Hines, an English teacher in downstairs House 3. Alex does a lot of cool things with her time outside of school, so much so that she doesn’t have much free time. But the free time she does have, she loves to ride her bike around Paducah and finding new areas that she didn’t know existed. “If it’s not raining, I’m usually on my bike as soon as I leave the building in the afternoons. I squeeze in as much bike time as I can get between the end of the school day and rehearsal at 5:30, as well as whatever time I can find on the weekends.”

Alex also does a lot at Market House Theatre downtown, which she considers her most interesting hobby.  In the past two years, Alex has been in three Family Series shows and she has been the Assistant Director/Stage Manager for three. She even was the assistant director for a show that she was in, which she said was fun, but super difficult. “I absolutely love working at MHT. I’ve met some really cool people through the shows I’ve done, including the author of this article (she’s so incredibly awesome!), and learned so much about myself.” Ms. Hines is actually working on The Hobbit at MHT right now which is being performed the first two weekends in October.

Alex’s biggest passion in life is her family. “If I’m with my family, it doesn’t matter what we’re doing, I’m having a blast. We love to hang out. My favorite part of stage managing The Hobbit is that I get to see my brother (who is playing Bilbo) on a daily basis.” Family has made her who she is today and she feels blessed to have them in her life.

When asked if there were any fun facts about her, Ms. Hines responded, “I’m a pretty boring person. So, here’s a quick rundown of random facts: I don’t like chocolate; I attend every superhero movie premiere; I have a weakness for strawberry Pop-Tarts; I regularly use semicolons in text messages; A good 85% of everything I say is made up of movie quotes, song lyrics, and stand-up comedy routines; and finally, I consider the word “nerd” the greatest of compliments.” Alex Hines is a great teacher and an even cooler person to hang around. She is a great asset to MCHS and we are lucky to have her as a part of Mustang Nation!