Teacher Spotlight

Mrs. Yerova

Art Teacher (All Grades)

By: Shriya Raut

Q: What art medium is the most fun to use in your opinion?

A: I love painting and I like making paper sculptures

Q: What type of art do you enjoy making?

A: I personally like making figures and people but I exaggerate them a bit so it becomes more abstract and I put them in spaces, like architectural spaces to hide parts of the figure. Say I don’t really need the head, it's more of the pose I want you to focus on, I’ll make something jut out to cover the head because I don't want to show everything all the time.

Q: What are some hobbies you have other than art?

A: Ok. I rock-climb, I do yoga, I play tennis, and I cook. Very busy.

Q: When did you discover your love for art? 

A: Good question, let's see. I have always loved art, like always. I think in elementary school, like later in elementary school you know how people kinda get labeled as things like the sporty kid, the smart kid, you know about that? I was labeled as an artist. And I was like OK I like this. So then I just kept with it. When I was a senior in high school though I didn’t ever think I was going to do art as like a living or anything, but there was nothing else I was interested in. So that is why I was like art education, I’ll teach people my love for art and I’ll get to keep doing art and get to see other people do art.

Q: Do you have any fun, secret things that people don’t know about you?

A: I can make my tongue into a clover shape and touch my tongue to the tip of my nose! A way that my brain works is that I wonder why things are made the way they are made and then I figure it out. I don't know why but I do. Like I have a rocking chair in my house and when you take the padding off it's not a wooden bottom it has wire, it is cut out with wire so it is more bouncy. So I like taking things apart and reverse-engineering them.

Q: What is your favorite animal?

A: That is a hard question… my favorite type of dog is a golden retriever and that super wrinkly dog, I forget the name of the breed and I love otters.

Q: What is one art concept/technique that you want to teach students?

A:  Mistakes are part of the process, to welcome them, to accept them. I personally usually go with my mistakes and I like it because instead of like planning your idea and you know exactly how it's gonna turn out, I think that's boring for me when I make art. When I make a mistake, it forces me to change the pose because I couldn’t get it right, I like that because then I'm like, ‘Oh, I don’t know exactly how this is turning out, I have a rough idea but I am just going to go with it.’ So I like mistakes because they are an opportunity to be flexible and grow.

Q: What is advice you would give to middle school students?

A: My advice for middle schoolers is to do things that will make you happy. Do things that interest you even if you think it's weird, classified as weird by other people, that's okay because weird people are cool and there is no such thing as normal if everyone is different.

Q: What was the first job you have ever had?

A: The first job I ever had was waitressing at a small cafe. I was not just the waitress, I was also the hostess, the cashier, I cooked things on the grill, and I bussed the tables, and if the cooks needed help I had to cook things, and I am sixteen years old. What do you think I am going to be doing? It was very hectic, it was stressful, the owner was not nice so she yelled at you in front of customers and the customers were old people. So old people expect you to know their order, they would say, ‘Oh I’ll take the usual.” What is your usual?  Like I don’t know how you want your eggs with a specific jelly for your toast. So I had to memorize old people's orders, and you get one dollar tip. It wasn’t like I was making bank.

Q: If you could add anything to this art room what would it be?

A: More stations. All the stations. Pretty soon I will be developing a print-making station, fiber station with like sewing and weaving. So those are coming soon. There is going to be a clay station, that is my goal because I know a lot of kids like clay. 

Q: If you could only watch one more movie for the rest of your life what movie would it be?

A: I want something that would make me laugh. So my favorite comedy movie is “The Producers”, it is pretty good. It's like a Broadway show in the form of a movie. It's a cool musical that’s really entertaining and funny. 

Q: What is the hardest part about teaching elementary school students and what is the hardest thing about teaching middle school students?

A: What I have noticed middle school students struggle with is coming up with ideas, that's the hardest part for them. Middle school students in general, let's say they have an idea, the second hardest thing is when they make mistakes they give up really fast, again this is all in general. The majority or a good chunk of the class… that's what I'm noticing more than in elementary school. With elementary school students, they don’t struggle with ideas they have a ton of ideas. It's crazy. They are usually fine with mistakes they just run with it. That's the big difference. The toughest part of elementary was like when one kid does something goofy, in middle school if someone does something funny we can move on in seconds. If somebody does something really funny in elementary the whole class will lose it and it takes two-three minutes to be like okay that was funny let's keep going. Did you ever have like a huge bug in the class? Everyone is like ‘LOOK AT THE BUG! WHOA!’ Some kids will be like, ‘Kill it! Kill it.’ While others are like ‘No, save it!’ I always choose the kid who can save it to deal with it. I love bugs but I dont know which ones are poisonous so I don’t touch them.

Ms. Morrison

STEM (All Grades)

By: Abby Cutrona

Q:  Where did you grow up? 

A: I grew up in Billerica. 

Q:  Why did you choose to teach STEM? 

A: I love technology! I love using it in my daily life and learning new types, techniques, or ways of using what I know. When Mr. Ruscito retired, I jumped at the chance to share what I love with kids. 

Q: If you weren't a teacher, what would your dream job be? 

A: I always wanted to be a doctor. I loved teaching Anatomy and Physiology. I’m fascinated by how complex our bodies are yet how well they work! 

Q: What was your favorite subject in middle school? 

A: In middle school I didn’t love learning. I struggled with my spelling and at that time computers were not commonly used so I frequently got bad grades because I lost points due to misspelled words. I didn’t see myself as smart or a good student until I was a junior in high school when I took an anatomy course and loved it. 

Q: When did you decide to be a teacher?  

A: When I was in college I tutored college freshmen in Biology for money. All the college students I tutored said I should be a teacher because of how well I explained things, so I added education to my degree. 

Q: What was your favorite grade in middle school (6-8)? 

A: 8th

Mr. Norling

PE (All Grades)

& XC and Track Coach

By: Maddie Plurad and Sharanya Vaidianathan

Q: What do you want students to know about you?

A: That I practice what I preach, that I exercise and I eat well, and that's what I talk about.

Q: What’s your favorite book and movie?

A: That’s a tough one - I don't have one book or one movie that’s my favorite. I have several. I like Ernest Hemingway, and for movies, I like action and sci-fi. 

Q: What’s your favorite sport? What’s your least favorite sport?

A: It depends; there’s sports you play, and there’s sports you watch. My favorite sport to play growing up was ice hockey although I played soccer through college. And then my least favorite sport, I don’t have a least favorite sport - I like all sports. 

Q: What do you look for in an ideal athlete or student?

A: Commitment, worth ethic, focus because that works with all aspects of health. So what you show on the field if you work hard, can be used in all other aspects of life. 

Q: When did you decide you wanted to be a gym teacher?

A: I was in my 2nd career working in the restaurant business being a manager of a restaurant. I had a degree for finance which I used to work in Boston in a suit and tie, and left that and moved to California, and was in the restaurant industry and realized that I didn't like working nights, weekends, and holidays, so I wanted to find a job where I didn’t have to. I wrote a bunch of stuff down on a piece of paper and figured out what do I like in life and what do I want, and then I narrowed down my 3 choices and this was one of them. And I decided I would try it and I got my second degree in California.

Q: Why did you choose to coach cross country and track?

A: I started coaching soccer because it was available and track also because it was available. And then from there, when the cross country job opened up, I quit soccer and switched to that. 

Q: What event did you run in track? What is your favorite event to coach in track?

A: I was a sprinter in track so 100m and 200m but as I got older, after track, I became more interested in longer distances. But coaching wise, I actually like coaching all of the different running levels because they're all different and unique in their own way. 

Q: What sport do you not teach that you wish you could?

A: I can essentially teach whatever I want. I do wish we had a swimming pool or a hockey rink. I would like to teach ice skating - we have indoor inline skating which is great, but I would love to teach swimming because I like swimming a lot. So because of the availability, I can’t, but I would like to teach swimming. 

Q: Do you have any fun, secret talents? 

A: I don't know. I can do all the circus skills like juggling, stilt walking, I used to be able to ride the unicycle pretty well, stuff like that. 

Q: What was your worst subject in school? What was your favorite grade and why? What is your favorite grade to teach?

A: I’d probably say English was my worst subject… I just found it boring. My favorite grade was probably senior year because I was almost done. My favorite grade to teach is probably sixth grade because the boys aren’t crazy yet, and the students in sixth grade tend to listen a lot better, and they seem to be more energetic towards what we’re teaching them. I like teaching sixth and eighth a lot - 7th is probably my least favorite.

Q: What is your favorite fitness test to watch students do?

A: I like… I would say it's a tie between the shuttle run and the mile because you can tell if someone’s a sprinter or a long distance runner. 

Q: Describe a great PE teacher with 3 words

A: Organized, fun, and always willing to learn more

Q: What do you recommend to do to get fit?

A: There’s many levels to being fit. It's getting a good night’s sleep, eating well, exercising, so all those things combined lead to being fit.