By Lexie Brearley
Staff Writer
This is Patricia Gifford’s first year teaching high school students. In her twelve years of teaching, she has only taught college age students. She says that Westford Academy has made a good first impression.
“Both teachers and students have been going out of their way to make me feel welcome,” she said.
Previously, Gifford taught night and day courses at UMass Lowell and Northern Essex Community College; now she just teaches night courses. Here at Westford Academy, she teaches Algebra 1, Geometry, and Intermediate Algebra 2. A student could have her for three straight years, which is one of two reasons she decided to switch to high school.
“In college,” she said, “You don’t have the bond there with high school students. In college you have a student for a semester then you may never see them again, where in high school there’s a chance you can have a student for all four years.”
The other reason she decided to make a change was because of her three kids at home. Vacation schedules were different; they would have February and April while she would have March and a longer Christmas Vacation.
Gifford recognizes that many students have had a bad math experience and this experience has an impact on how students look at math.
“For some reason, in math, most students have a bad experience and can’t get over it like they can in other subjects,” she said.
She tries to prevent this in her class by telling students that she has been teaching for twelve years and has three kids, so she has the “patience of a saint.” There are no dumb questions in her classroom.
Teaching three very different classes, Intermediate Algebra 2 is her favorite class. It is more advanced and more what Gifford is used to with teaching college math.
She says that Geometry is very different from Algebra. Algebra one has the key fundamentals one needs in life, the basics of math.
Starting in November, Gifford will be the sole advisor of the school’s math team. She also can be seen cheering on the ULowell hockey team and even WA’s football team.
In her free time, she likes to go the beach, go boating and fishing, and her favorite TV show is 24.
