There are several new faculty members joining the GMHS community this year. Whether they’re teaching math, managing athletics, or monitoring the attendance of all students, each new staff member has a unique role in GMHS. We decided to ask four of the new faculty a few questions to get their feelings on the school and their new work environment.
Mrs. Hand: Social studies long term substitute for Mrs. Schwarzkopf Mrs. Hand has joined GHS as a long term substitute for Mrs. Schwarzkopf. She teaches Juniors and Seniors, at both the honors and college preparatory levels. Mrs. Hand describes our teachers as being “super helpful” upon her starting here at GHS; however, she says she has much more of a connection with students rather than school staff. We wanted to know if she is using the notes given to her by Mrs. Schwarzkopf, and she said, “I decided to use my own personal materials, rather than the notes provided to teach classes simply because they were already familiar to me and therefore easier to teach back to students.” Ms. Rossi: Math Teacher Ms. Rossi teaches grades 9th-12th, however, she has mostly 9th and 10th grade students with the occasional upper classmen. Ms. Rossi feels welcome by all fellow staff members as well as students ever since coming to the school. However, she definitely feels more of a connection with our students. She found out she had gotten the position at the very start of the summer and describes the job as stressful so far but rewarding. She is just getting into the swing of things here, however, as the year goes on she will get into a good routine. As for a connection with the our community Ms. Rossi says, “I definitely have more of a connection with my students rather than the faculty.” Mrs. Doumanian: Office secretary Mrs. Doumanian works with every student in both the middle and high school grade levels, and she feels very welcome by everyone at the school. Her main job responsibilities are secretarial: monitoring student attendance, putting in student info into system, as well as other administrative duties. Mrs. Doumanian officially found out she had the job by the middle of August and she had some help getting into the swing of things. “I was so fortunate to have Katie Legere as a mentor for about three days over the summer. She was able to give me some helpful tips and teach me the basics on how to do everything I am supposed to do for this position. She’s so wonderful,” said Mrs. Doumanian. Mr. Browner: Assistant Athletic Director Mr. Browner’s title is “assistant athletic director/grounds.” This job entails mowing, lining, and any necessary field prep for games and practices. When he is not outside prepping for games, he is helping to schedule games, officials, and buses. Mr. Browner also works as the game administrator at all home events and he maintains supervision over coaches. “I absolutely feel welcomed by the faculty/staff at the school. As a recent graduate of Georgetown High School, I still have a connection with current faculty/staff which has made the transition easier,” says Mr. Browner. In addition, he has worked for the school each of the past four summers, which allowed him to develop a working relationship with many people. Mr. Browner started working during the middle of August. “There is always some anxiety and stress when starting something new, but I have tried to be prepared as much as possible and with familiarity of the school, and things have gone relatively smoothly.” As of right now, he has more of a connection with the faculty. However, as the year goes on he hopes to improve his connection with the entire student body.
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As of this year, Georgetown High School’s elective curriculum has changed. The addition of electives offered as honors courses has been very popular among the student body. After interviewing students taking the honors courses, the guidance department, and a teacher involved in the change, I gained some insight on these new additions to the curriculum. Students taking these courses explained the difference in workloads and in tests.
Senior Angela Fournier told us that the honors students in Mr. Difranco’s Psychology and Abnormal Psychology classes have certain homework due every Friday that the college preparatory classes do not have. In addition, the tests are different; while the CP portion of the class has the use of a word bank, the honors section of the class does not receive that option. However, the courses are being taught at the same time in the same classroom, so the content the students learn is the same. Angela also told us that the honors version of the class allows for more challenges than the CP section. So far Angela believes the system is working well, and, not to mention, the honors courses really help her GPA. The head of the guidance department, Mrs. Robinson, was also able to give The Royal Press insight on how the added courses are working so far. According to Mrs. Robinson, “There has been much positive feedback from students and teachers. The courses really allow for students to be challenged and gain honors credits.” Generally there are more students taking the honors version of each elective. For example, Psychology takes place during three different classes, with 16, 8, and 15 students opting to take the CP portion of the class. The Honors section of those three classes have 17, 13, and 10 students. In Abnormal Psychology, there are 6 students taking it as a CP elective and 19 students taking it as an honors class. Although it is a little too early to tell, Mrs. Robinson believes the new system is working well, and will continue to work well as time goes on. However, Mrs. Robinson does wish that for the students (especially the seniors) sake, that honors electives had been offered sooner because of the benefits for the students. We also interviewed senior John Blythe to get another student’s point of view on the new honors courses. According to John, the honors elective feels like a normal class with the additional workload, as opposed to an elective class. “The CP electives don’t help boost your GPA that much,” says John. Like Angela, John says that the only real differences between the CP and honors sections are the homework and tests, otherwise the class’s notes and content is the same. John does wish that the honors section had been offered prior to this school year, and he believes that the electives now are a bit more rigorous than before. Last but not least we interviewed Mr. Difranco, who teaches the Psychology and Abnormal Psychology classes with Ms. Little. Not only are the new honors sections different for students, but for the teachers too. “While the content is the same for both college prep and honors, honors students will extend their learning through reviews of current psychology publications. In addition, assessments require a greater depth of knowledge,” says Difranco. As for the number of people taking the class ,Mr. Difranco says, “Numbers are definitely up. I have the largest abnormal psychology course since it has been offered, with over 25 students. We are also running three sections of Intro to Psychology this semester, which has not happened in many years.” Mr. Difranco believes things are going well so far, and the new electives even allow for students who had not taken honors classes before to try an honors class, “and they are certainly up to the challenge,” according to Difranco. When we asked Mr. Difranco how he sees this system working this year and in the future he told us, “This model for electives, where both honors and college prep meets in the same period, has a lot of potential to work in the long term; we borrowed the model from the business department, and so far it seems to be working well. It will be important at the end of the semester to get feedback from both honors and college prep students to make it the best experience possible.” The system seems to be working well for teachers and students alike and will hopefully have continued success in the future. |
AuthorOlivia M is a senior here at Georgetown Middle High School. She is a interested in Science and English. She is the captain of the girls varsity soccer team. Liv hopes to pursue a career in nursing after college. She is part of the web team and interview team on the Royal Press. ArchivesCategories |