BY LAUREN SATINK AND AXEL MUELLE

The start of the school year welcomes not only new students, but also new teachers to our school. One of the newest staff members is Mrs. Flory, an intervention specialist.

Before teaching, Flory worked at Walt Disney World for one year where she made some of her favorite memories.

Her job was to be different characters and her most proud accomplishment from this experience was when she got to be Mickey Mouse in a parade.

After graduating from Crestwood High School, she decided to continue her education at Kent State University with a focus on becoming an intervention specialist.

This is her ninth year teaching in total but Mrs. Flory has spent the other eight years with another district in Portage County.

“I really like helping students be successful,” said Flory. “Whatever I can do to help them be the best they can be is why I chose to do it because I think all students can learn given the right tools. My job is to help make those tools accessible to them.”

Mrs. Flory has some classes that she just teaches small groups and has others that she goes into the classroom and works with the teacher and students in that room.
Mrs. Flory’s biggest goal this year is to get settled in the high school because she has previously worked with 6th graders at a middle school. The change has been good because the high schoolers are more independent and she is not constantly keeping track of all their work and supplies.

“One of the things that helped shape my path to being an invention specialist is that it’s okay to be wrong,” said Mrs. Flory. “It’s okay to be different. Embrace that. That is something that I try to show my students.”

This year she is excited to help her students be who they are and love what makes them different just as she learned to do.

Flory is looking forward to being a part of Wadsworth high school, helping students, and instilling the love of learning that she has on her students and in the school.

Humrichouser means “house of music” in the German language. He may not be teaching music, but Mr. Humrichouser has been the assistant coach for boys cross country at Wadsworth high school for the past year and is ready to take on the next challenge of being a history teacher.

Mr. Humrichouser went to school at Ashland University and majored in integrated social studies. He graduated from college in 2017 and he was hired last year at Wadsworth to be the assistant coach for boys cross country. This is his second year as a teacher because he had a long term subbing position at Highland the previous year.

He teaches American history and world history and he is now coaching cross country and girls track as well.

Mr. Humrichouser went on a few different mission trips when he was in high school. One to Philadelphia and one to New York City.

“That kind of showed me that we all have passions for things and I think we can definitely help other people through our passions,” said Humrichouser. “So I have been very grateful through teaching and through coaching and my own running to come in contact with a lot of unique and interesting individuals and it has given me a lot of avenues to help people.”

These trips helped him realize that he wants to make a difference in students lives.

“I think learning in high school that even as a high school student I can make an impact, really motivated me as I grew older to go into teaching and coaching and yeah, you’re going to come in contact with people, but how are you going to be more intentional with your impact,” said Mr. Humrichouser. “Not everyday is going to be great, but how are you going to try to impact at least one person in a positive way.”

Mr. Humrichouser is trying to establish a routine at the high school and trying to get to know everyone. One of his goals to become more connected with the community. He is really excited to see his students in settings other than track and collectively knowing all his students. He wants to create real relationships with his students.

Madame Stratton is taking on the position as one of our French teachers at the high school. She is excited to be teaching a foreign language to the students and working with the challenges that come along the way.

Madame Stratton studied education at the University of Akron and has a total of 24 years of teaching experience.

“I think I was just born to it,” said Stratton. “I took French in high school, fell in love with it, kept taking it in college because I just couldn’t imagine going to school and not taking it. Then I thought, maybe I’ll give teaching a try and found out I’m pretty good at it. I got to discover not only do I love French, but I love sharing my passion for it with students. It’s the best of both worlds.”

She also discovered that she really likes teaching teenagers.

Madame Stratton teaches an introductory French course at the middle school and French 1 and French 4 at the high school.

A new challenge for her this year is that she is used to being the only French teacher, but she has really enjoyed being able to work with Madame May and have the ability to speak French with other passionate people.

Something that helped her become who she is, was that she learned a lot from watching the adults in her life and what decisions they made and how that affected their lives.

“I decided early on that happiness is a choice and I choose to live a life where I am satisfied,” said Stratton. “It’s not always possible, but that’s a big thing. I watched a lot of people be miserable when I was growing up and I don’t want to live that way.”

For Madame Stratton this is a big year of change for her and she is learning how to work with the introductory French class because she is writing the curriculum as she goes into the course. It’s a lot of preparation, but all the changes have been positive ones. In the end, it is all worth it to her if it means she can live out her love for French on a daily basis.

Her major goal this year is to help her French 4 students pass the seal of biliteracy test. They are really focusing on improving their speaking and writing.

Madame Stratton is extremely happy to be a part of the Wadsworth family and is thrilled to be doing what she loves.

Finding the best of both worlds, Mr. Milano is excited to start his first year at Wadsworth High School teaching physical science and geology to the students as well as being the coach of the lacrosse team.

Mr. Milano achieved his degree in biology and went back to school to get his master’s degree at Cleveland State.

Mr. Milano decided on biology as his major because he has always enjoyed science. It was able to give him the answer to a lot of “why” questions that he would ask as a kid. He liked the idea of being able to understand the inner workings of how this whole life thing works.

“Even though I’m not teaching biology, which is kind of the sad part,” said Milano. “I do like teaching physical science right now, we have a wide range of topics that we can hit and we can answer a lot of those questions that kids may have and we have enough time that we can go back and review, we can actually have a really good engaging, learning atmosphere in the classroom.”

After his undergraduate degree, Mr. Milano took a really bad job in Cleveland and that caused him to think about what he really wanted for his life. Education kept coming back and back to his mind and that’s when he decided to get his master’s degree at Cleveland State.

“Now that I’ve been here, I’ve had 3 or 4 times where I’ve been walking around teaching and I pause because I can’t believe that this is my job,” said Mr. Milano. “I honestly feel that this is where I’m supposed to be.”

Mr. Milano really wants to survive this year and he is looking for a huge year of growth. He is excited to not only teach the students science, but also give them skills that will help them with the rest of their high school career and in the world. He wants to become part of the Wadsworth community and he is looking forward to lacrosse season.

This year we welcome seven new teachers to Wadsworth high school, one of them is Anthony Boytim. Mr. Boytim comes to us from Maple Heights.

“This is my eighth year teaching, I spent my first year teaching in South Carolina, and six years in Maple Heights,” said Boytim. “I wanted to come to Wadsworth because of the community and the quality of the education system. I hope to further my career and give my students a solid support system and a good foundation in math, for my freshmen, strengthen their math skills and help the seniors get their graduation requirements out of the way.”

After graduating from Brunswick high school, Mr. Boytim attended Ashland University where he graduated with a bachelor degree and a double major in math education and mathematics.

“I wanted to be a teacher because I wanted to do something I wanted and I love to do,” said Boytim. “Working with kids, and helping to shape their lives and be an impact on my students. I think it is helpful to use the problem solving skills and to build their brain to think in different ways, the math they may not use but the strategies they use may help them down the line.”

He hopes that he can insert a flipped classroom technique, one where the students do the notes at home and then during class do more practice with him.

Wadsworth High School requires many teachers and faculty to help educate the upcoming generation of students.

Mr. Boytim is looking forward to helping students succeed in math this year. He hopes to share his love for math and encourage his students to find a similar passion to his own.

Alongside the multiple other new teachers this school year, Wadsworth alumni, Aubrey Virgin has returned to begin her career in education.

Miss Virgin is beginning at Wadsworth High School as an intervention specialist for her first year ever teaching.

“I graduated from Kent State in May,” said Virgin. “I graduated from Wadsworth High School in 2015, I am an alumnus, so coming back home is great, seeing everyone and feeling comfortable is a good feeling as a new teacher.”

Miss. Virgin wanted to become an intervention specialist because she always knew she wanted to be a teacher.

“I fell in love with being able to make a difference in kids’ lives,” said Virgin. “I majored in special education, mild to moderate is more of my specific field, I’m K-12 though, but have always wanted to teach high school, so this is my end goal right now. I do want to go back and get a further education, but I’m not exactly sure what yet.”

Growing up in Wadsworth and experiencing the great school district is why it was such an easy choice to come back.

“Wadsworth is an awesome school district,” said Miss Virgin. “The staff and faculty are great, the kids are great, and the athletic department is great, and Wadsworth as a community is so welcoming and you feel like you’re at home.”

Although, returning to Wadsworth as an employee instead of a student has some downfalls.

“It’s really weird, I’m still trying to get used to it,” said Miss Virgin. “I still find myself calling my colleagues ‘Mr. and Mrs. a lot just because I have had them as teachers, so I’m slowing getting into a first name basis.”

She is excited to begin her career at Wadsworth high school and grow within her profession.

Coming to Wadsworth High School this year as a biology teacher is Bree McNeil. For Mrs. McNeil this is her 18th year teaching.

In previous years she has taught at Rittman, wrote the curriculum for an online school, and in the past two years she worked at Sacred Heart. She has also taught a variety of science classes in the past.

This year Mrs. McNeil will be teaching 9th grade Honors and Academic biology.
“I want to instill a love for science in my students,” said McNeil. “I would like to help them to value science and the natural world around them.”

Mrs. McNeil graduated from Ashland University with a degree in Biology and Toxicology and with a minor in Chemistry.

In 2018 she was named the Medina County conservation teacher of the year and in 2019 she was the Ohio conservation teacher of the year.

“My kids are here and I’ve always heard great things about the school and I wanted to be a part of it,” said Mrs. McNeil.

Throughout Wadsworth high school’s history many state recognized teachers have taught here. Many teachers choose to teach at Wadsworth high school due to the past history of our academic Recognition and the standard set for our learning ability, Mrs. McNeil hopes to continue the legacy created at Wadsworth High School.