Allison Beck, Reporter
@abeckcourant
For the past five years, Room 113 has belonged to the Spanish teacher, Katherine Leckie, but now a new face occupies the classroom: Jacquelyn Aldrich.
Graduating in 2008 from New Canaan High School, Ms. Aldrich never imagined she would be back at the high school teaching the subject she loved, Spanish. Going to learn at the University of Mary Washington, Ms. Aldrich started studying to become an English teacher. “I was always planning on being an English major. It was second semester of my Freshman year, I found myself doing Spanish homework for fun instead of doing my other homework,” she said. “That is when I realized there was something wrong there and I changed my major”.
After graduating from college in 2012, Ms. Aldrich moved to Argentina to pursue her passion of teaching. There, she received a job at an international school where she taught English to students whose first language was Spanish. Although she loved Argentina and her students, Spanish is her favorite subject to teach. “I love the language and I love grammar and the Latin culture.” So when her stepmom called her over the summer about a job application for a new opening at the high school, she applied. “I thought that nothing would happen,” Ms. Aldrich said. “But I came here for two weeks in the summer and went back to Argentina with a job.”
Ms. Aldrich uses her experience as an NCHS alumni to connect with the school. Ms. Aldrich remembers when almost all classrooms had smartboards. “It hasn’t changed all that much,” she said. “I see the teachers I had in high school all the time, it’s hard for me to call them by their first names.”
With her new permanent job as a Spanish teacher, Ms. Aldrich now sees both perspectives as a student and a teacher. “I don’t think I ever realized how hard my teachers worked,” she said. “The education here is phenomenal and I think you guys hear that alot.”
Although she is a new teacher, she is already loved by many students-including junior Matthew Costco, who is in Spanish three, and hopes to have Ms. Aldrich as his teacher next year.
“You can really tell how much she wants her students to do well,” he said. “She is there to help everyone and make sure they are doing their best.”
