After her first year of teaching at Malden High School, Abbey Dick is confident that MHS is where she belongs. Although she has tried different careers, she came back to teaching because, “it is so much fun and fulfilling, and [she] meets hundreds of new people every year.”
This year, Dick is teaching Advanced Placement Language & Composition, English 10 Honors, and English 10 College Prep. She is teaching her CP classes along with Mark Ruelle, a special education teacher at MHS. Recently, MHS has been pairing teachers with special education teachers to teach in the same classrooms.
Also, Dick is teaching her first MHS AP class, which she enjoys. AP Language & Composition is a class where students focus mostly on writing and nonfiction. So far, Dick says that, “[they] need to write more,” and “[she is] excited to do more work with them.”
Other than her AP class, Dick is also teaching sophomore honors and college preparation. She says that 10th grade is her favorite grade to teach because it is, “a really pivotal year for learning because [students have] made it past the hurdle of 9th grade, and now [they] have to really make some decisions about the future.” She thinks that her honors class will become better at listening and speaking in class, and also will become better at Dialectical Journals. This year, Dick was surprised by Poetry Out Loud. She feels that it went better than last year in all of her classes.
Dick enjoys teaching her technology unit, which includes reading the book Feed by M.T. Anderson. She feels that Feed is, “so interesting and so engaging for students.” The technology unit she is teaching includes outside texts that relate to the unit. Dick thinks that the unit is important because, “kids like to talk about technology and it’s very controversial.”
When asked about MHS, Dick stated, “it kind of feels like it’s not as big as it actually is.” She says that she has “never worked anywhere like [MHS].” The diversity of the school is what she finds most important, other than the fact that “everyone here is working as hard as they can.” She feels that the diversity “benefits everyone in the community.” Dick appreciates her students because they, “Make [her] work really hard,” and they are, “very honest and give their teachers a lot of feedback.” Dick is sure to continue pushing her students to do the best they can in order to have a successful year as well as years to come.
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Great writing, Felicia!