New Science Teacher Ms. Garcia

Ms. Emily Garcia loves many music genres such as pop, indie, country, metal, K-pop and many others. During her free time, she enjoys reading books, playing with her pets, and spending time with her family watching movies. One thing that encouraged her to become a teacher was her high school teachers. A specific teacher helped her through some rough times in her life, and they still talk to this day. She already knew that she wanted to do something involving science, and when she was taking biology in high school, she fell in love with it.

By the time she was a senior, she had a strong feeling that she wanted to be a secondary science teacher. One of the goals she wants to accomplish while being a teacher is to inspire students to be themselves.

So far she is really enjoying teaching here at JHS. She loves the atmosphere. She stayed in this district for the entirety of her K-12 experience, so she felt it was fitting to stay in the district and teach here.

New English Teacher Ms. Dillingham

Ms. Bridgett Dillingham listens to almost any music. She goes back and forth most with R&B/ Soul (Sza), to rap, and to more hardcore punk/emo, heavy metal music like Pierce the Veil or Bring Me the Horizon. When she’s not teaching, she likes to travel, do photography, go to museums, and go to flea markets.

Ms. Dillingham is a huge proponent of self-care and likes to take time to herself to recharge because she is more busy than not. When she doesn’t give herself time she becomes stressed and overwhelmed and she isn’t about to function properly. One of the things that made her want to be a teacher is she has always had a knack for helping others and watching people improve and be happy with themselves gives her a sense of fulfillment.

She also had teachers in high school who were there for her and pushed her to be better when she wanted to give up. She isn’t exactly sure why she chose to teach high school but she does know that these 4 years are extremely rough on anyone especially the closer we get to being out in the real world. So, she wants to be the same role model for students that she had when she was in high school. Her main goal of being a teacher goes hand in hand with why she wanted to teach and why she chose high school. Ms. Dillingham believes forming relationships with students is important as it goes a long way when it comes to being successful and following expectations. She believes if she didn’t form these real relationships with students, then they wouldn’t be as open or accepting of her when she has to be tough on them. She would be met with more resistance and attitude than someone actually listening, knowing she cares and wants to see students succeed. It helps with students wanting to talk to her, asking for advice, and help.

Ms. Dillingham tries her best to make her room a safe space for all students. The first week of school, she had her students do an introductory assignment, and they turned it in for a grade, so for the first week she talked and got to know her students.

“As I know, that will go a long way versus if I hadn’t taken that time to do so.”