Hello there! I am Ms. Braese and I am one of the reading teachers at WMS. This is my second year teaching middle school reading and I love it! Before teaching middle school, I taught third grade in North Carolina. As a kid, I lived on the Cape and then my family and I moved down to North Carolina when I was in middle school. (My picture above is from the 2004 Super Bowl when the Patriots beat the Panthers. Go Pats!) I moved back up to Massachusetts to attend graduate school a couple years ago and decided to stick around because I love the area. Growing up, I never really enjoyed reading and thought it was boring. As I got older, I grew to understand its importance and impact and hope to pass this lesson on to my students. I'm excited for the new school year and can't wait to start meeting students and reading new books!

• My name is Chris Cochran, and I am one of the reading teachers at WMS. I teach 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.

• This is my 11th year in Watertown. I have been fortunate to have many different teaching roles through the years. My first year, I taught reading, but also taught ELA with Ms. Lorigan in cluster 4. Then, I taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade reading for the next three years. I moved up to Watertown High School and taught reading there for four years. That was awesome because I got to work with some of the students I knew from WMS. The next year, I taught reading at Lowell Elementary with Ms. Cox and Ms. Toledano in the morning and taught reading at WMS in the afternoon. That was a fun year, and I enjoyed traveling between the two schools! Last year, I returned to WMS full-time.

• We have a fantastic reading department, and every day I am grateful that I get to teach with Ms. Z. and Ms. Braese.

• I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. I enjoy going down south to visit my family. This summer I visited my family and spent time with my parents, my two sisters, and my three nephews.

• In my free time, I enjoy playing tennis, playing piano, and when the weather is nice, my favorite thing to do in the summer is to go to the beach. During these last few months when we have been spending so much time at home, I started playing Animal Crossing on Nintendo. I used to love video games as a kid, so it has been fun to get back into that. Now, I need to focus on school and not work on my island so much!

• Most of my free time the last few months has been spent raising our two new puppies, Louis and Henry. They are full of energy and a lot of fun.

• This is going to be a very interesting year, but we are all learning new things and facing new challenges. We will have a great year together, and I am looking forward to getting to know you and having a wonderful year with you!

Hi! My name is Ms. Zuckerberg (Zuck rhymes with book), but you can call me Ms. Z. I teach Reading in all clusters. This will be my 6th year at WMS.

I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and I went to BU (GO TERRIERS!) to learn how to be a teacher. I loved it so much that I decided to stay in Massachusetts. My favorite place to read is on the dock by the water at Lake Winnipesaukee. When I am not teaching or reading, I am running around the Charles River in my neighborhood- Harvard Square, baking treats like pie and challah, and practicing my Spanish with my husband.

Welcome, readers! I am looking forward to sharing my favorite authors and books with you, and I can’t wait to help you grow as readers, writers, thinkers, and dreamers!

Ms. Z

Bio coming soon.

Bio coming soon.

Hi, I am Ruth Henry, and I teach Spanish and Kingian Nonviolence. I grew up in Watertown and learned how to ride my bike in the middle school parking lot. Then I moved away for a long time, first to Jamaica Plain and later to Cartagena, Colombia, where my daughters were both born. Our family came back here 7 years ago + I was very happy to see how much more colorful Watertown has become. One of my daughters, Eva, will be a senior at WHS this year and my other daughter, Maya, will be a 5th grader at the Cunniff.

One thing I love is making art of all kinds, especially murals. The mural on the back of the Boys + Girls Club is one I worked especially hard on. Another thing I love to do is write raps + freestyle. I keep what I call mixed media journals where I make/write a little art + rhymes each day to help me make sense of the world. I also really love getting time outside in nature (Gore Place is my favorite!) and hanging out with my friends and family.

Another thing I love is listening to young people’s ideas for how to make our community better and helping them bring those ideas to life. Standing up about things that are unfair is very important to me. I feel very blessed to get to learn from and with my students each day about how to do this more often and more courageously.

Salve a tutti! Hello everyone! I’m Angela Kuzemczak, I teach Italian here at WMS!

I have been teaching at Watertown Middle School since 2008! I was born and raised in the Boston area of Massachusetts, graduating from Winchester High School in 2004. I then went on to study for my undergraduate degree at Syracuse University, and later transferred to Brandeis University where I graduated in May 2008. I got my graduate degree in Italian Literature from Boston College in May 2013.

My mom was born and raised in Abruzzo, Italy, and my father was born and raised in Medford, Massachusetts in an Italian-American family. I celebrated my first birthday in Italy with family and have been traveling back and forth almost every year! I am a very proud dual citizen of both Italy and the U.S.! I have one younger sister named Emma, who currently lives and works for a bank in London, England.

I met my husband, Brian, when he was serving in the United States Navy as a Hospital Corpsman (medic), and I was in college. We were married in July of 2009 and now have a beautiful and energetic four year old boy named Rome - yes, like the city! We also have a grumpy old dachshund named Fabio, after an Italian soccer player! Currently, we live in North Andover, Massachusetts, and love spending time in the state park nearby or going to visit the local farms (Smolak farms is one of our favorites!).

In my spare time I love to travel, write, read, dance and practice aerial yoga! Eventually I would love to try any of the more adventurous “circus arts” as well (aerial silks or trapeze!). I’m happiest when I am by the beach and any ocean or sea. One day, I would love to have the chance to live in Italy!

I am so excited to be back teaching Italian this year and hope to share my love of the Italian language and culture with you all!

One of my favorite inspirational quotes is from Walt Disney, “If you can dream it, you can do it.