Homecoming Teachers Receive Warm Welcome
English and social studies departments unite around the return of Catrina Galloway and Priya Talreja
By Darius Parakh
English and social studies departments unite around the return of Catrina Galloway and Priya Talreja
By Darius Parakh
Jan. 8 marked a new beginning for veteran teachers Catrina Galloway and Priya Talreja — after a year and a semester away, respectively, the two emerged from the holiday break with a new-found fire behind their eyes, each with a similar passion to engage and develop their students’ skills following their time apart from Pioneer.
Selected for deployment from the Army Reserves during the spring semester of 2019, English teacher Catrina Galloway spent the majority of the year in the Middle East, serving in the psychological operations unit as part of the Army’s joint task force with the Navy. In contrast, history teacher Priya Talreja took on a similarly stressful endeavor — twins — during an extended maternity leave due to health complications with the births.
For both the social studies and English department, the teachers’ leave of absence was not an easy task to fix. Foundations of the Pioneer community, both Galloway and Talreja teach three separate curricula, which can be problematic for substitutes in the long-run. To alleviate this stress, the social studies department turned to retired teacher Rick Conrad to take over Talreja’s mantle.
“Every class was taught by my substitute, Conrad. He was a former teacher here and he taught for a couple of decades,” said Talreja. “So he came back, as when he retired, one of the classes he was teaching was government, so he had a strong understanding of the curriculum.”
While the history department was able to hire one long-term substitute, Galloway’s English Learning and Development classes warranted a different approach.
“The English department stepped up in the most amazing way possible. Instead of getting long-term sub after long-term subs, they took extra classes,” said Galloway. “It’s a whole jigsaw. Laura Cozzella took a class, Andrew Barlam took a couple of classes and they ended up switching once I returned. Michelle Bowman took over my Advanced Placement Language and Composition class and they all worked extremely hard last semester, without really any breaks in the day to make sure you guys all got a consistent teacher at the end of the day.”
For Assistant Principal of Instruction Brendan Simon, such a decision was crucial in maintaining the level of education that Pioneer seeks to provide its students.
“We wanted to ensure that Galloway’s classes were covered, while staying away from hiring a long-term sub,” said Simon. “Because our English department is tightly knit - they plan together, so what you see one person teach, they all use in their classes — this was simply the best way to distribute the classes between teachers. ”
While Paige Steffler, 11, has found the transition between Bowman and Galloway’s A.P. Language and Composition classes to be a bit difficult at times, she is glad that the department is making a united effort to ease the change.
“Shifting teachers is not typically easy, but Galloway has been really interested in helping us recover from a different teaching style,” said Steffler. “She’s been really focused in helping us transition.”
Selected for deployment from the Army Reserves during the spring semester of 2019, English teacher Catrina Galloway spent the majority of the year in the Middle East, serving in the psychological operations unit as part of the Army’s joint task force with the Navy. In contrast, history teacher Priya Talreja took on a similarly stressful endeavor — twins — during an extended maternity leave due to health complications with the births.
For both the social studies and English department, the teachers’ leave of absence was not an easy task to fix. Foundations of the Pioneer community, both Galloway and Talreja teach three separate curricula, which can be problematic for substitutes in the long-run. To alleviate this stress, the social studies department turned to retired teacher Rick Conrad to take over Talreja’s mantle.
“Every class was taught by my substitute, Conrad. He was a former teacher here and he taught for a couple of decades,” said Talreja. “So he came back, as when he retired, one of the classes he was teaching was government, so he had a strong understanding of the curriculum.”
While the history department was able to hire one long-term substitute, Galloway’s English Learning and Development classes warranted a different approach.
“The English department stepped up in the most amazing way possible. Instead of getting long-term sub after long-term subs, they took extra classes,” said Galloway. “It’s a whole jigsaw. Laura Cozzella took a class, Andrew Barlam took a couple of classes and they ended up switching once I returned. Michelle Bowman took over my Advanced Placement Language and Composition class and they all worked extremely hard last semester, without really any breaks in the day to make sure you guys all got a consistent teacher at the end of the day.”
For Assistant Principal of Instruction Brendan Simon, such a decision was crucial in maintaining the level of education that Pioneer seeks to provide its students.
“We wanted to ensure that Galloway’s classes were covered, while staying away from hiring a long-term sub,” said Simon. “Because our English department is tightly knit - they plan together, so what you see one person teach, they all use in their classes — this was simply the best way to distribute the classes between teachers. ”
While Paige Steffler, 11, has found the transition between Bowman and Galloway’s A.P. Language and Composition classes to be a bit difficult at times, she is glad that the department is making a united effort to ease the change.
“Shifting teachers is not typically easy, but Galloway has been really interested in helping us recover from a different teaching style,” said Steffler. “She’s been really focused in helping us transition.”