By Hiba Ahmad
This year, we happily
welcomed many new faces to our team, and now we sadly say goodbye to a few
teachers who have been with us for quite a few years now. Mr. Lydy, Ms. Tash,
and Ms. Whitman-Allen are unfortunately moving on, and while we hope for the
best for their future, we can’t help but wish they could stay! When asked about
their times here, they seemed to all agree that STEM is a unique environment
where they felt they had grown.
Ms. Tash |
Mr. Lydy |
Mr. Lydy only had
positive things to share about the school as well, “It’s [my time at STEM] been
great. It’s been really nice, every year has been a little different, so it’s
nice because you know, one of the questions a lot of people ask is ‘don’t you
get tired of teaching the same thing over and over again?’ but it hasn’t been
the same for the last eight years.” He isn’t quite sure what he’s going to miss
the most about the school, but he did state that his fondest memories were
“…getting to do the projects during STEMmersion.” Stemmersion won’t be the same
without you, Mr. Lydy!
Ms. Whitman-Allen |
Ms. Whitman-Allen is
the third veteran teacher who is leaving us this year, and while she’s excited
for her new job, she is thankful for the opportunities she has had, as well as
the staff. “I’ve had a lot of really incredible opportunities here, and mostly
I valued the experience of working with the staff here because they’re
extremely dedicated beyond what normal teaching staff are.” On what she’ll miss
the most, she says: “Teaching can be pretty stressful and it’s such a relief to
be surrounded by people who take it as seriously as you, and who find humor and
joy in a really stressful job, so I will really miss my team of teachers, and
also just the administrative team that provides a lot of support.”
She takes a
moment to think about her favorite memory, “It’s hard to pick one memory when
there have been so many!” But she eventually recalls when she created a video
in her first year of teaching at this school, where teachers danced in the
background as students talked about the school. “We made that video of all the
teachers dancing behind students when they didn’t know. And the last day of
school when we played it for them in the cafeteria, they had no idea what was
coming because the whole thing was a big surprise that was pretty hilarious. It
was hilarious and also really touching because you could tell the students
actually appreciated it and thought it was genuinely funny, they weren’t just
laughing at us, we were all laughing together and it was pretty great.” We hope
you can make more happy memories and awesome videos as you continue with your
life!
We wish the best for our
teachers, and we hope you all succeed in your new jobs!