By Tim DeLouchrey
Staff Writer

Kat Flinner has returned to Westford Academy as an English teacher.

Q: What made you want to work at Westford Academy?

A: I am actually a returning staff member. I worked here for five years about eight years ago. Then I had small children so I’ve been out doing other things. This is a part time position and it is perfect.

Q: What made you originally want to become an English teacher?

A: I love working with children of all ages and I love reading and talking about literature. I find it fascinating, so there is really no better job that combines the two.

Q: Why did you choose high school over middle school?

I was getting good advice in the graduate school program, and the advice I got was that you need to love your kids and you need to love your subject. But if you are going to work at the middle school, you need to love your kids more than you love your subject, and I can’t give up talking about poetry and books and such. I find them too fascinating.

Q: What are some things you like to do outside of teaching?

A: Well, I’m a rower in the Merrimack Boat Club in Lowell. I don’t get to spend as much time with musical instruments but I am musical. I sing, play piano and flute but it is tough to find time once you have kids. I used to be a phenomenal reader, I used to read everything under the sun and now that I have children of my own I end up reading much more children’s literature. I do awesome kids’ parties and I am very proud of that. My son wants a Robin Hood birthday party because that’s one of the books we’ve read and I have a Friar Tuck pinata and a “Capture the Sheriff” game planned. Also, my daughter wanted an art party and I’m not an art teacher but it was interesting. We did color mixing with icing so they got to decorate cookies.

Q: Has music been something you’ve been a part of your whole life?

A: It has. I started piano in the third grade and the flute somewhere in elementary school so I’ve been doing those since then so if there’s anything to take from that it is that I am loyal to what I do.

Q: What are some personal goals for your first year back?

A: I was at UMass Lowell helping freshmen in college with their writing and I’m trying to adjust to the pace and different level. I’m also adjusting to a five-day week versus a three-day week as well as working with vocabulary books because it’s been eight years since I’ve done that. My personal goals involve my own feedback in student essays and seeing if I can do it in ways that are more constructive and to ask more questions. With my junior class, I think my personal goal is to make them feel like they are connected to the thread of the American experience. We took a survey at the beginning of the year about what they thought was most American and a lot of them came out with things from way back and I thought that was interesting that they didn’t really feel connected.

Q: Do you have a favorite book?

A: Asking an English teacher to choose a favorite book is like choosing a favorite child. I probably have a short list of books that are somewhat life changing. I would put Siddhartha on that list, by Herman Hess. That was phenomenal. I had a great English teacher and I read that when I was in school so that was pretty life changing. About eight or ten years ago, I read the Grapes of Wrath and it really was phenomenal. It was written about the 1940’s but it is still so true today. It was almost eerily amazing. I have not read the Hunger Games but I do really like a lot of young adult works.