Mrs. Newman has been a teacher here at Anaheim high school for several years now. Students that had her as a teacher in either physics or mainly Human Anatomy have said that Mrs. Newman is a caring, fun, and relatable teacher to have. Students say, “The way she teaches makes me want to pay attention.” This is because she lets the students know she’s not just a teacher at Anaheim High but a person.
Mrs. Newman has always lived here in California, with her birthplace in San Diego, California. She was raised along with her younger brother and her two parents. With both parents being physicians, Mrs. Newman followed a career in the science/medical area. Her two parents supported both her and her brother regarding their education and what they wanted to pursue professionally. Something they taught Mrs. Newman is the dedication and importance of education, which helped her along with life challenges. This allowed her to be strong enough to keep working hard, whether that be school-related or something going on in her personal life. She claims that “My motivation came from me wanting to be proud of me, I wanted to do well for myself, and because my parents always knew I could, I was always encouraged by that.”
With her parents letting them explore their interests in sports, education, etc., she found herself liking the performing arts path. Going into choir and dance at a young age, She started to dance at the age of 5 and enrolled in classes until her senior year of high school. Music, in general, has always been a big part of her life when it came to coping with life situations. She even decided to dance for a talent show about five years ago; some of her students had asked her if she could dance a song with them. She enjoyed this not only because she was able to perform and dance like she likes to, but she got to show the students watching the talent show that she isn’t just a teacher, but a person they could relate to.” I’d like to get more staff involved to show kids the other side of us.” She believes this will let the students relate to them as genuine people and not just a teacher, which leads to students being more open to learning.
Mrs. Newman often shows that it’s important to be yourself and express yourself, whether through teaching, acting, dancing, etc. She relates to her students while teaching by being herself, connecting lessons with common daily stuff, making the students build a bond with her that makes learning certain. With these bonds, she also hopes students start to ask for that help or the push they may need, whether for education or personal purposes. “Whether a student of mine is a class clown, a straight-A student, a student who has an F; every student has an equal importance to me. To those kids who might feel alone, marginalized, I want them to know that they have teachers who do care, and if they ever wanted to come to talk to us teachers, they shouldn’t be scared to come talk to us.”