Mrs. DeAngelo, Math Department:
How are you enjoying your time in New Providence so far? If you were previously a teacher in another district, how is it different?
“I love [New Providence]. It’s great. The kids are great. The teachers are great. Everyone’s so nice. It is a lot smaller than my original teaching job [in Virginia], but it’s a lot bigger than [my previous] private school job. At the private school I worked at, the class sizes were like four or less [students].”
What aspect of math do you most enjoy? Why do you feel that it is an important subject to teach?
“I like the fact that I like to make [math] accessible for kids. A lot of kids don’t like math. So [I would like to] make it seem at least a little bit interesting or a little bit fun, or at least interject some humor into the class, so it’s not something they dread even if they don’t like the subject.”
What do you look forward to this year? What are your goals?
“I’d really like to go to some student events. I’d really like to go to a football game, plays, or concerts. I want to see what my students are up to outside the classroom.”
Ms. Hinz, School Psychologist:
Were you previously a school psychologist?
“This is my first year as a school psychologist. So before this, I was actually just an intern. I worked in Kinnelon as an intern for a year and now I’m here.”
What part of being a school psychologist do you enjoy so much? Why do you feel that school psychologists are important to a school and their students?
“I enjoy identifying students’ strengths and being able to scaffold their weaknesses so [I] can help them navigate life and find their purpose in the world. I think it’s important because [I am] able to help students and provide them with support and prepare them for their next steps in life, finding what they want to do and what they’re interested in.”
Do you face any challenges as a teacher? How do you use those struggles to become a better teacher and provide for your students?
There are challenges in any position, but I would say that my challenges here are navigating, report writing, and emails, but also wanting to be involved in the classroom and seeing students. So I think prioritizing that is important. [Despite these struggles, I] have to put [my] students first and be active and involved and [get] out there and [see] them and [meet] with them. [That] is at the forefront and everything else can wait. The paperwork will get done. The report writing will get done. The meetings will get done.”
Ms. Iosso, Language Arts Department:
Were you previously a teacher?
“I was not. This is my first year teaching and I’m liking it.”
What is your favorite part about being a teacher?
“My favorite part of being a teacher is being able to help students on an individual basis [in order to help them] understand more about what we’re learning. I like to help students with close reading skills.”
What challenges do you face as a teacher? How do you use those struggles to become a better teacher and provide for your students?
“Challenges I face as a teacher, it’s definitely [. . .] time management [because as a teacher, there are] lots of different things to juggle. The better I get at being able to do multiple things at once, the easier it’ll be in the future while I’m teaching.”
Ms. Macchia, Video Production
How are you enjoying your time at New Providence? If you were previously a teacher in another district, how is it different?
“I am. [I love the] students and the administration is really, really nice. [This district is different from Perth Amboy, where I worked before because] I spent a lot of time developing the program the way I wanted. So here, I’m picking up from where the teacher who I replaced [left off], but trying to put my own spin on things. I’m just getting the room up and ready to be functional the way I want to teach or for the projects that I want to teach.”
What aspect of film production do you enjoy so much? Why do you feel that it is an important subject to teach?
“I was a film major in college, and my background was in cinematography, which is also camera work and lighting. So that’s [the part of my job that] I enjoy the most, but I’ve become very good at pre-production, planning, script writing, and video editing, but the production part is my favorite. [I teach this to students because] I think being visually literate is really important in this day and age, especially for people [in this] generation because that’s all [they are] going to notice: how [students] get [their] content through, like social media like TikTok. So my job I feel is to make [my students] educated in how to create content.”
What do you look forward to this year? What are your goals?
“I’d like to get the student work out there for the public to see. [I want to get] student work into some film festivals, to screen at those festivals. That’s actually really my goal.”
Mrs. Olsen, Visual Arts
Were you previously a teacher? If so, which district did you come from and which subject did you teach?
“For the last two years I was teaching at a different high school in Sussex County. [I was] teaching the same subjects [Graphic Design, Architecture and Engineer Design, and PLTW Introduction to Engineering]. But before that, I was an interior designer at an architecture firm for 23 years.”
Do you face any challenges as a teacher? How do you use those struggles to become a better teacher and provide for your students?
“The work-life balance [is difficult to master]. The amount of work it takes to prepare for the classes is a lot because I teach three different subjects. So I always try to work smarter, not harder. And I always want to be prepared and have my students engaged in my classes.”
What do you look forward to this year? What are your goals?
“I’m learning the culture at New Providence High School since I’m new, [whether it is] connecting with the students and the staff for graphic design or actually working on the holiday card for the superintendent. I’m really looking forward to that project. It seems to be a very long tradition here.”