Q: I know you have worked at Blanchard Middle School. How are you adjusting to working at WA?

A: I love it. I love being able to work at both schools as the coordinator. Everybody here is so nice and I still have a chance to work with people I know at both schools. Working with them in a different role is really fascinating and exciting. I love seeing all my past students, too.

Q: Have you worked at any other schools besides Blanchard or WA?

A: Yes. Before I worked in Westford I taught at a school in New Hampshire as a high school math teacher for 2 years. I also taught seventh and eighth grade, and I taught fifth grade for one year, which was not for me. The fifth grade students still needed a lot of hand-holding and tying shoes.

Q: Have you ever taught any other subject or is math the only subject you’ve taught?

A: When I taught fifth grade I taught all the subjects. I started out as an elementary school teacher [as] my first training and right after graduation I started with teaching middle school math.

Q: How long have you showed an interest in math?

A: I’ve always been really good at math, but I never wanted to teach just math until after I started student teaching. My senior year I started an internship program at my high school where I was able to work with a first grade teacher one day a week. That was really great and I saw that working with kids I really liked all the data collection you do as a teacher that you don’t really know about when you’re a student. It was when I was in college and student teaching that I decided that I really wanted to teach math.

Q: Have you ever had any interest in other jobs that you wanted to do?

A: I didn’t really have anything else that I wanted to do. I was that kid in high school that had no clue what [she] wanted to do. I started that internship program was something to do that might help me figure out what I wanted to do and I figured it out. College definitely helped me figure out what I wanted to do and what I liked. There was a lot of pressure in high school to decide what you wanted to be when you grew up and I just wasn’t ready for it. I couldn’t narrow it down.

Q: What were your favorite hobbies as a child?

A: My friends and I went bowling a lot, which was fun. I loved playing board games and puzzles with my sister. I played video games with my sister. I didn’t play any sports. I was involved in theater for a little bit, but it wasn’t a main hobby. I was in a lot of clubs, though. I started at lot of clubs in high school. I was in the prom committee. I did math team which was a lot of fun.

Q: If you had any advice about how a math student could exceed in math what would it be?

A: Ask for extra help. Don’t be afraid to talk to the teacher. If you just feel like you’re not getting something, find out what you’re not getting, because usually it’s not a whole concept. It usually is just a few things that you don’t understand, and one you fix those few things it should be easy to understand the full concept. Don’t be afraid to go to Youtube and listen to other teachers explain it. Sometimes it is helpful to have someone with another way of explaining it.