Q: Why did you decide to come to WA?

A: Well, I’m a Westford resident and we moved to Westford for the school system. I was a Spanish teacher and I wanted to teach here because I wanted to be part of this great system. I wanted to participate with the things that Westford does and I wanted to contribute in a way.

Q: How did you get into teaching Spanish?

A: I am initially from Greece and I went to Canada to study Spanish and French literature. After I graduated I went to Spain for my masters in teaching Spanish as a foreign language. I fell in love with Barcelona, and I fell in love with my husband and I just loved Spanish more than French. It’s a language that just really has an impact on me, it kind of resembles Greek when it comes to phonetics and stuff so I feel like I can relate more to the Spanish language than to the French language. I was just in love with the Spanish culture and Spanish people.

Q: Was there any specific point when you knew that you wanted to teach?

A: Well I wanted to be in a teaching field because I’ve been a student all my life. Being born and raised in Greece, I took English as a second language. I took French; I remember I was going to different language schools to learn English and French as well as Spanish. I had different teachers that made an impact on me so I realized that I wanted to become a teacher. Since I have a better understanding of how the students felt, I wanted to become a teacher to make students feel at ease with the language that I taught. I wanted to keep that student-teacher relationship because it is something that I really like.

Q: Did you teach in any previous schools before this?

A: So before Westford Academy I [hadn’t] taught at a high school level; I taught at [a] college level. When I moved from Barcelona with my husband to the states we first moved to New Jersey and then to Boston. So in New Jersey, I taught at Montclair State University and I was teaching first and second year of Spanish. I had that experience from New Jersey. It was very similar to this school level since the level is pretty high here. Even prior to that I taught at Barcelona for many years. It was never at an American high school though, so this is my first experience as that.

Q: What are some activities that you enjoy outside of the classroom?

A: Well, most of my students know that I am a cross fit freak, I do a lot of it. I love exercise, in my younger years I have worked as an aerobics instructor, and spinning instructor. Later on once we moved to the States I started working as a cross fit trainer. I actually work at a cross fit gym in Chelmsford because I’m a part-timer here in WA. I also do cross fit competitively, and I’m hoping to make the cross fit games next year.

Q: So far what are your first impressions of WA?

A: Well, I’m a new teacher but last year, from February to April I had a long term sub position. So that was my very first experience. I definitely like the whole environment, I love how there is a very friendly communication between teachers and students. It’s a very relaxing environment to work in, even though sometimes in the classroom there is always stress as a first time teacher here. I love my whole department, all of the other teachers are very supportive and I like the students. It is a very friendly environment.

Q: Is there anything else that you would like to tell us about?

A: Well, I am very happy to be here, I would like to stay here. I look forward to every day. Teaching is not an easy job, it requires a lot of preparation, but as I said before I have a great support system here. I really like it here.