At the dawn of a new semester, there are some new faces around the school. One of these new faces is the new English department hire, Ms. Danette Hughes.
Ms. Hughes has fifteen years of experience teaching. For the last four years, she was teaching in Taiwan. In the short time that she has been here, Ms. Hughes has already been impressed by the school spirit and community. She has a family of three adult children: two daughters and one son.
She aims to create a classroom culture of respect and equality amongst the teacher and students.
“I feel that it’s important for the students to feel respected and to be treated like adults,” she said.
She also tries to create a classroom where students are excited to learn and read. One of her favorite memories from her past teaching experiences was when she got one student who didn’t read at all to read a whole book, “Slaughterhouse-Five”, in one night. He came back the next day and asked for more books by Kurt Vonnegut. This is an example of one of her philosophies of teaching.
“Teachers are sales people. They have to sell students on what to read or do. If students want to do well they have to do the work, but there is a difference between them enjoying it and going through the motions,” she said.
In addition to teaching, Ms. Hughes also enjoys many hobbies outside of the school environment. She has done over three thousand Sudoku puzzles and also exercises frequently. She writes her own books in her spare time and is currently in the middle of writing three separate books. Interestingly, she ghost wrote a novel for an Irish author.
Ms. Hughes also offers valuable advice to the Saint Viator community
“Use AI as a source, but not to write your papers. You need to be able to develop critical thinking skills that will be crucial in the future,” she said.
Because of her kindness, her passion, knowledge, and friendliness, it is clear that she will be a great fit here in the Saint Viator community.