I am super excited about my new position, and can't wait for the year to begin. As a new teacher at Tantasqua, I thought that it might be a good idea to introduce myself. So here is a bit about me, and what to expect this year in my class:
I am a graduate of Boston College, and have been teaching for 13 years. Most of those years was right next door at Shepherd Hill Regional High School in Dudley. As a teacher in a nearby district, I have always heard great things about your school and communities. At Shepherd Hill, I always tried hard to make my classroom a place where students look forward to attending. I hope to continue this at Tantasqua.
When I was in high school, I was bored most of the time, very rarely challenged, and had many teachers who in my estimation at the time, disliked teenagers.
The year I graduated high school, I saw the film Dead Poets Society in the theaters. I began to wonder what it would be like to go into education from the background of a student who hated school. I saw the character that Robin Williams played, and thought to myself: How would have HS been different if I had a teacher like him?
So I changed and broadened my English major to include education classes. During my Jr. year in college, I had the opportunity to teach in Ireland for the year. I am sure I will end up telling stories from time to time in class :-) Remind me to tell my Irish Ghost story on Halloween....
At SH, I wore many different hats. I co-directed plays with your own Ms. St. Jean for 5 years. (Did I mention how excited I am to be working with her again?) We did some great stuff together. I was thinking of twisting her arm and doing it again here, but who knows.... In addition to English, I have a passion for technology. I love tinkering with computers and seeing how stuff works. This interest led me to creating a video studio at Shepherd Hill, and producing a student run TV show, called Shepherd Hill AM- or SHAM for short. If you are curious, you can watch old episodes at: http://www.youtube.com/user/seancusick
Most recently, I taught a creative writing class, where my students wrote and published their own origional novels. You can read about it here: http://www.southbridgeeveningnews.com/pdf/WEB.2008.05.30.pdf
So what can you expect from me as your teacher- lots! I have extremely high expectations for both myself and you in my classroom. I will be using this blog to communicate with you outside of class. This includes class notes, weekly discussion questions, a new vocab word of the week to be used in class and daily assignments for those of you who might miss class or need clarification. I look forward to doing great things together this year! See you in a few.....
