Photo of Veronique Heleon. Photo by Brandon Wong.
Malden High School is excited to welcome a new member to the world language department, Veronique Helenon. Helenon is eager to be teaching both French and Spanish this year. She taught in many different circumstances, in both “colleges and high schools such as Framingham High School” as well as international teaching within Haiti.
Helenon, who was born and raised in France traveled back and forth from the Caribbean at a young age. Even though she was raised in France, she has lived in America now for 20 years and has recently gotten her citizenship.
Helenon mentions that she is personally interested in studying history and teaching history at some point in her career. During college, she learned “multiple extensions of education in history.” Despite her interest in history, she also knows multiple languages: Creole, French, English and Spanish. She is eager to be teaching students a new cultural perspective.
Within her first few months of teaching, Helenon has loved how welcoming the staff and students have all been and “how the student body is really diverse.” Leaving her old job as a professor, she does not have any doubts, and she knows that she will be getting used to the MHS system soon.
Molly Crellin, a co-worker of Helenon who teaches French, acknowledges the fit that Helenon has for the world language department. She mentions that Helenon is a “great addition to our department.” After interacting with her on several occasions she has noticed how “calm and hiddenly humored” Helenon is. Crellin believes that she would be a great compliment to the already existing teachers.
Paul Degenkolb, who is also a co-worker of Helenon expresses that he knows she is able to connect with the student body since she is open-minded and knows when to be fun and when to be serious. He explains that from what he has observed in her classes, “she loves teaching and she knows how to make it fun for the students.”
The goals that Helenon has in mind is to teach the students and “make sure that they are in a comfortable environment and they understand the lessons being taught to them.” She hopes that as the year goes on, she will be able to understand the resources at the school better and use the resources with the students. Helenon emphasizes the importance of teaching students about the different perspectives in international cultures.
