Meet the New Upper School Faculty Members: The Upper School would like to welcome 11 new teachers to our community! If a new teacher is teaching one of your classes, take a look at these Humans of Latin profiles and videos to get answers to questions such as “do you like to give a lot of tests?” or “how would you describe your class in a few words?” And if you don’t have any new teachers, just take a look for fun. We’re really excited to have 11 new members of our community! MS. WANG LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT CHINESE: INTERMEDIATE-LOW “I am really excited to be with the students: to have fun, grow together, learn, and teach Chinese. Teaching a language is one of the few things that allows you to see a tangible improvement after each day.” “Tests work, but students hate that. I will definitely give tests and quizzes, but I need to learn how many assessments I should have. I also want to incorporate fun, educational games, and encourage the students to participate. I want my classes to be fun and informative and my students to learn from real life, authentic materials.” “I love teaching languages: learning a new language is such a useful skill and gives students new horizons and new perspectives.” “Previous students really like my projects. My class will be fast-paced and rigid, but also fun.”’   MS. JENO MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT ALGEBRA 1, GEOMETRY, ALGEBRA 2 HONORS   “I am excited to meet the kids, be in the classroom, and teach math.” “In class, I like to talk a lot about math because I really love it and want to help encourage my students to develop the same appreciation for math that I have. I also like to do a lot of projects that relates math to the real world. I like to joke a lot too.” “My mother was a teacher, she played a part in inspiring me to become a teacher. I decided to become a math teacher because I like math a lot. My high school math teacher helped me learn to love math, and gave me many opportunities to help my peers.” “Be prepared to work a lot but also have fun.”   MS. SEGRETI SCIENCE DEPARTMENT PHYSICS, STELLAR ASTRONOMY, COSMOLOGY   “I don’t like to have everything be worth a grade. My students should be comfortable making mistakes. They shouldn’t feel like everything they say or do will be judged or worth a grade.” “Quizzes, tests, and projects really help students develop an understanding of the material, but I will also encourage discussion and participation in class: that is super important too.” “One of my biggest pet peeves is when people worry too much about lines being straight when I draw graphs on the whiteboard.” “I am nervous for the first day of school, but excited to be a part of the Latin community: I didn’t know schools like this existed.” “Expect my class to be relaxed but challenging.”   MS. ILKHCHI MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT GEOMETRY HONORS, TRIGONOMETRY, FUNCTIONS   “I am very excited about getting to know the students, not just as my students but like on a personal level, what they’re interested in and what their hobbies are.” “I don’t think I’m a hard grader (but my students might tell you differently,) but I do like to have notes. And as far as homework, I don’t assign a ton of homework, but the problems I do assign I really do expect to be done. But I don’t think I’m an easy teacher, but I don’t think I’m a difficult teacher. I like to think I have a balance—but we’ll see what you guys think.”   “I’m very open to feedback, and constructive criticism—and that feedback can be positive or negative, like if they come out of my class feeling like that lesson was hard or, even not just about the lesson but maybe a personal relationship, I’d like them to think they can come talk to me.”   MS. CALLIS ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ENGLISH 9, ENGLISH 10, A NOVEL’S PLACE, TIMES AERO   “I’m excited to be in a place that feels so welcoming and so comfortable. It was one of the things that drew me here in my interview, that everyone was so open and willing to share, and allow me to be myself as a teacher—and just as a person, which was really very refreshing. I’m really excited to become part of that atmosphere of education.” “I guess to sum up my educational style, my belief or philosophy, is that I am not the only source of information in the room. And I never want to be the only source of education in the room. I’m really big around discussion. A lot of my class will be parsing out ideas and group work, and working together and learning too—and rely on more than just me.” “Music was a really big deal for me. In college I discovered acapella, which I didn’t have before in high school. And it’s one of my favorite things to do, even still. I previously ran an all-student acapella group, I was the advisor and I think I’m going to be working with the Romannets actually here, which is exciting!”   MS. BARKER ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ENGLISH 10, BANNED AMERICA, SPEECH     “I think I feel strongly that students should be putting in as much effort as they can, and sometimes I think, if people are kind of careless with what they do, or if they didn’t take the stuff that we did in class and try at least, then I’m not very good at sugarcoating it. So I think for that reason, some people might think I’m a hard grader.” “Stop the class! Get an eraser!” “In high school I worked with the students with severe intellectual delays and I volunteered with them, going on trips with them, going camping, and things like that. And that turned into, fifteen years later—I actually just flew back in—something bigger. I actually work at a camp now that I got into though high school and this was my sixteenth year there. My high school extracurriculars didn’t stop!” “When people are clearly acting like they are not invested in what a classmate is saying, that’s probably my biggest pet peeve. The other one would probably be when people use the letter ‘U’ instead of ‘YOU’  and that kind of text language.”   MS. SHANDLING SCIENCE LAB MANAGER GRADES 6-12   Click here for a video interview of Ms. Shandling:   MR. OOMMEN COMPUTER SCIENCE GRADES 6-12   Click here for a video interview of Mr. Oomen:   MS. LAWRENCE UPPER SCHOOL COUNSELOR   Click here for a video interview of Ms. Lawrence:   MR. KENDRICK MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT AP STATISTICS, ALGEBRA 2 Click here for a video interview of Mr. Kendrick:   MR. LANGSTON UPPER SCHOOL LIBRARIAN Click here for a video interview of Mr. Langston:    ]]>