This school year’s new faculty introduce themselves and welcome exciting beginnings
By Genesis Arrieta, Dreyfoos School of the Arts
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October 12, 2023
Eszter Veres
Dressed as Professor McGonagall, AP Precalculus teacher Monica Russell goes over answers to problems that students assigned to the different Harry Potter houses solved. Each correct answer gave that house a point. “I hope that I can make (math) a little bit more interesting,” Mrs. Russell said.
“I’d like students to see a richer world so that they can live a richer life,” science teacher Timothy Siniscalchi said. “I don’t want my classes to just be words on a page, where rules are just things to memorize.”
“My sophomore year of high school, I had Algebra 2, and really struggled a lot. I had no clue how to factor. I could not figure it out for the life of me, until I had this one teacher who would explain everything so that I understood it,” math teacher Monica Russell said. “I was like wow! A teacher can actually make such a difference in someone’s life. It helped my whole self esteem. So because I struggled with math for a little bit, I relate to students who also struggle with it..”
“I promised myself when I got into (teaching) that I would make my lessons interesting enough to be something that sticks with (the students),” social studies teacher Blake Ecker said. “The impact that I want is more like (students) understanding (their) capabilities of being able to figure something out. It’s having enough confidence in yourself that you are capable of doing something harder than you thought you could do.”
“I love how creative English is,” language arts teacher Moriah Carlisle said. “When I was in middle school, I started writing poetry as a way to express how I was feeling.”
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“Everything has prepared me and my teaching career to be here, and (it’s an) honor to be in a space that’s full of creativity, that’s full of amazing teachers and awesome students,” Mrs. Carlisle said. “I’m just super blessed to be here.”
“I love the arts. Being surrounded with so many talented students, it’s just like, I feel alive,” foreign language teacher Nathalie Ramirez said. “It’s really truly magic(al) like Mrs. Bennett says. I can’t wait to see students’ performances. I will try to be there as much as possible, because you guys are so awesome.”
This story was originally published on The Muse on September 29, 2023.