West High is adding a new face to room 5108. Ms. Lee will be taking over all of Ms. White’s classes. Ms. White now works as the District’s ELA Common Core Resource teacher, striving to improve the understanding of Common Core and studying new techniques used to teach it. Ms. Marsiglia, who has had a neighboring classroom with Ms. White for the last 14 years, said that she “is sad to see Ms. White leave, but looking forward to working with Ms. Lee.”

Ms. Lee has loved school since she was young. “I was the kid that was sad when summer vacation rolled around and was always looking forward to Mondays,” she said. “I loved learning and was always excited to do so.” Before coming to West, Ms. Lee graduated from Cal State Fullerton and tutored at a middle school. “Even though I don’t have much experience, I am keeping an open mind and looking forward to learning a lot this year,” said Ms. Lee.

This year, she hopes to make her class enjoyable for all students. “I plan on using a variety of things to help my students learn. I want to be using different media constantly, so there is always something that somebody likes,” she said. For her sophomores, Ms. Lee plans to focus on incorporating sensory detail into their writing. For juniors, she wants to focus on implementing new writing techniques and sophistication. “I want to take a different route than other teachers usually do,” says Ms. Lee, “I want to stray from what’s typically used so that the students can experience the class in a way they otherwise wouldn’t.”

Ms. Lee is also looking forward to offering a new perspective to West High’s traditional yearbook. “My main focus for yearbook this year is to learn as much as I can and help wherever my help is needed,” she said. As for her personal contribution, Ms. Lee wants to focus a lot on fundraising so that “money won’t be a problem this year, or in years to come.” She has great trust in her staff and knows that their hard work will be recognized upon publication.

Ms. Lee knows that she has big shoes to fill as a new teacher at the school and is working hard to do so. Although there is a lot of pressure put on her shoulders to do well, she is keeping an open mind and looking forward to all that she will learn in the upcoming years. “My main focus this year is to become accustomed to the curriculum I’ll be teaching,” said Ms. Lee, “and do whatever I can to make my students really enjoy the class.”