Meet your new spontaneous chemistry and physics teacher Ms.Namigata . Smoke Signals spoke with her on Monday September 12. Her full name is Tamoyo Namigata and since she was two she grew up here in Torrance. She didn’t go to West High but she went to a small high school called Chadwick School up in Palos Verdes. When she graduated, Namigata went straight to Japan to a university called Hamamatsu University School of Medicine for three years and then decided that medicine wasn’t her thing so she instead came back to California and attended University California, Berkeley for two years.
After graduating from UC Berkeley, majoring in molecular and cell biology and minoring in education, Namigata described her first time teaching as her having been “…so nervous and so stiff to the classroom.” She also commented “I didn’t think projecting your voice comes in practice so I think for me that was kind of a struggle.” When asked how her reaction would be if she saw a student yawning or daydreaming and she responded with “… I’ve been there … You’re a high schooler and you are working hard with sports, clubs, all the time… I think it’s not irritation I do want to say it’s more of a concern, like a hey I want to make sure that person is ok.”
Ms. Namigatas’ classroom is a great place be to have an understanding teacher that students can be comfortable asking for help. In fact when asked what she liked about West she responded with how she loved everything about it. So far Namigata found nothing wrong with the school and stated that the best part is the people at that school.
A little bit more information on her, she believes and says “… I think as a woman, we need more women engineers out there we need just you know, women in science and I think we can make a difference, I can make a difference maybe by being a teacher” and she is making a difference because we need to end those stereotypes! But a random fact about her is that she’s also a part of the Torrance Civic Chorale.
If you are interested in getting to know her, her room number is 4215. Give her a quick hello!