History department welcomes Ms. Lipson

By Lora Hristova, Staff Writer

September 24, 2024

ROCKLAND- At the start of the school year, Rockland High welcomed Ms. Ashley Lipson as a new history teacher.

Ms. Lipson was born in Massachusetts but moved to Georgia, where she went to high school, and to Kennesaw State College, where she got her bachelor. After that, she completed her master's at Bridgewater State University. 

For the past five years, Ms. Lipson lived in Prague, Czech Republic, teaching geography in a private school there.

She visited Prague on her holiday and it was her first time in Europe when she decided to move there.

“I was sitting in a bus and was thinking: Europe is really cool. I wish I could live here. Well, I’m a teacher, I speak English and they need English teachers and then it was a very quick and spontaneous decision, which is not typical for me because I don’t usually make so big decisions spontaneously, but it felt like something I just needed to do and it was the best decision I have ever made,” said Ms. Lipson.

Teaching in the Czech Republic gave Ms. Lipson a whole new insight into the world and a wide range of experiences in her career and personal life.

“I love to explore new cities and nature and that is what I did in Prague and will continue to do here,” said Ms. Lipson.

Besides exploring different places and going on trips with friends Ms. Lipson also likes to be home and watch a good movie.

When Ms. Lipson applied for the job here in Rockland High, it was not only her knowledge and experience in teaching but also her first good impression that the History and Social Department Head Mr. Gregory Rowe was impressed by most.

“Ms. Lipson has done a lot of teaching with the Cambridge-Test, which is for international schools and that really was part of the reason why we liked her to teach AP classes because this test was very similar to the AP-Test here. She has done really well with taking the material and looking at it from different ways. When Ms. Lipson got into the room we immediately noticed that she was a really organized person and took a long time to get into the room just the way she wanted,” said Mr. Rowe.

Her students also got this impression of her and also like the way she constructs her lessons.

“I like that we have a lot of freedom in this class. We get to work with our classmates on projects and get enough time to finish our assignments in class,” said Clara de Oliveira one of her students in American History ll.