After a long year of being at home, a new school year at Marriotts Ridge has begun. Due to the large number of new students coming in, there are new teachers to go along with them. Mrs. Alacsia is one of these new teachers, and she has lots to say about Marriotts Ridge and teaching in general.
Mrs. Alascia teaches French and Spanish and has been doing so for 19 years. Before Marriotts Ridge, she taught in Carroll County and Baltimore County. She was also a flight attendant for 10 years due to her language skills. Last year, she taught at two different middle schools: Glenwood and Thomas Viaduct, both Howard County schools. “ I like Marriotts Ridge a lot,” Mrs. Alascia said.“This is more familiar territory for me to be back at, a high school.”
Due to the pandemic, most students and teachers had a hard time finding their footing last year. Mrs. Alascia feels as if she may not be able to properly convey how she feels. “One of the biggest things is having to wear a mask all the time. You don’t get to see people and recognize people, not only teachers, but students as well.”, Mrs. Alascia said.
“I would say that the students here are really nice, they’re very enthusiastic. I think that there’s a pretty good sense of community in this building,” Mrs. Alacia said.
The pandemic also affected how teachers taught. For a lot of teachers, they had to adapt to the new online setting and figure out how to move all their in person learning plans online. Everyone had to do things differently. Mrs. Alascia in particular had to figure out how to use technology in a new way that was effective for teaching.
“I would say that the pandemic made me more technologically stronger, I got stronger in teaching with technology.”, Mrs. Alascia said.
She also said that she was able to take these new things she learned and apply them to the classroom now that school is in person again. She also said that she felt as if a lot of educators had to get better with technology as a way to adapt to teaching online.
Due to the pandemic, there are now many precautions put in place to keep everybody safe. Mrs. Alascia said that she used to give out candies as an incentive to learn. Now she can no longer do so due to safety precautions. “Now I don’t feel comfortable doing that because it’s kind of hard to give somebody a piece of candy and say ‘Don’t eat this!’”, Mrs. Alascia said.
From moving to a new school in the middle of a pandemic to having to figure out how to move in person lessons into an online format, the past year has been one of learning for Mrs. Alascia. Overall, the new school year will bring in many new and exciting things, and Mrs. Alascia is excited to see what the year has in store.