Erick Martha-Reynolds. Photo taken by Tenzin Dorjee.
Recently, Malden High School has welcomed a new Spanish teacher, Erick Martha-Reynolds. He is replacing Diane Brookes while she goes on maternity leave for the rest of the year. Before taking over, he had been in the school for a couple of weeks, observing Brookes in order to learn the protocols of her class, and then finally took over her classes now that she has officially left on leave.
Martha-Reynolds grew up in Mexico and moved to Los Angeles, CA fifteen years ago. He graduated from the Mexican Institute of Technology. His hobbies are mainly active ones, including rock climbing, racing, and training at the gym.
When he came to live in Massachusetts ten years ago, he “realized that a lot of hispanic people were living here and they didn’t have the tools to communicate in English, so [he] wants to help those who speak English and do have the tools to learn Spanish, to be able to do that and learn a second language that will help them communicate with a huge group of people they could not have before.”
Martha-Reynold explained that Malden was a good fit for him to teach in because he lives in the area and sometimes when he’s had to take the bus, it has passed by the high school, and he began to wonder what it would be like to work at this high school. That’s why when he heard about the job opening, he was immediately excited. Another reason he was excited to work at the high school was because since learning a language is not required, students at the high school know if they want to learn another language and get to choose which one most interests them, which isn’t true for students in elementary or middle school.
This is actually his first year teaching full-time, but he has been a substitute teacher for the past two years. He feels that the students are dealing with the transition from Brookes as their teacher to him “pretty well.” Martha-Reynolds also added that “the language department is very supportive and have offered [him] help, making [his] success feel like a team effort.”
His goal coming to MHS is to be an “exceptional teacher”, and make sure the kids enjoy the subject and benefit from it in the future. He mentioned that since Spanish is one of the most common languages spoken in the United States, it makes it so that knowing the language could be something that could really help them later in life.
Martha-Reynolds can be found in J266.
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