¡Hola!
My name is Alyssa Katz and I am one of the Spanish teachers at Lawrence High School. I began teaching in Lawrence in 2008 at Lawrence Middle School, and moved to LHS in 2013.
I grew up in Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia, and have been living in New Jersey since 2010 with my husband Robert. We do not have any human children, but we do have a dog named Chubby and 2 cats named Pastelito (Lito) and Baleada (Bali) .
I graduated from Ithaca College with a B.A. degree in Communications and a minor in Spanish. I have a Master's Degree in Secondary Education and am a certified K-12 Spanish teacher in both New Jersey and in Pennsylvania.
The Spanish language and culture have always played an important role in my life, beginning with a service trip to Nicaragua my senior year of high school. To this day, the family with whom I lived and I have remained in close contact, and I credit my passion for teaching Spanish to my experience in Nicaragua. In the summer of 2015, I went back to visit for the first time in 18 years!
Nicaragua is only one of the many countries I have visited, including 6 other Spanish-speaking countries. Since 2013, I have been travelling with high school students through Students Helping Honduras to a small village in the northern region of Honduras, helping to build schools and enjoying the wonderful people and culture of an amazing country. I have also visited El Salvador, Peru, México, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Brazil, Israel and England. I very much enjoy travelling and sharing stories, pictures, and artifacts from my travels with my students.
I am looking forward to getting to know all of my students this year and hope to instill the same love and passion for the Spanish language and culture that has helped shape me into the person (and teacher) I am today.
Fun facts about me:
I LOVE listening to music (mostly Latin music, but I also really enjoy Rock!
I spend most summers in Honduras, which I consider my second home.
Activities I enjoy include singing (especially karaoke), dancing, bike riding (I rode 750 miles during summer 2020) and reading suspense/thriller novels.
Monkeys are my favorite animal.
Follow me on Instagram @la_loquita_senorita
¡Gracias!
Señorita Katz