Teacher Confessions

Mrs. Chapin - “APUSH was killer hard, I helped a lot with pep rallies at my school, and I was voted the friendliest in senior superlatives.”

Mr. Levy (teaches APUSH) - “The weekend before my AP Bio exam I went away for the weekend with my girlfriend and her family and didn't study much. I ended up getting to the test and having no idea about much of it and wrote a fictional story for the essay portion on water. I ended up getting a 1.”

Dr. Cox (taught AP Biology and teaches Biology) - “I was really bad at physics and I let my lab partner do everything.”

Dr. Stewart (teaches AP Physics) - “I got a D on my first two ever physics tests, it was the first time I felt a class was really hard, and it made me fall in love with physics. I still have the two tests in my office and the teacher I had also remains my favorite.”

Mrs. Coons - “On my senior overnight trip, which was also the day before my 18th birthday, my friend brought a coloring book for me to do at midnight to keep childhood in me. She wanted me to start adulthood remembering how to be a kid. And I think it worked!”

Mr. Perez - “During my sophomore year when I played football, I tackled the now top running back AJ Dillon, and then left the game. “

Mrs. Khoury - “My senior year, I took AP English Literature. I didn't like my teacher, but I knew he loved my older brother. He told us that if you don’t take the AP exam, you have to write a final essay. But I didn’t want to do either. So, in protest, I wrote down a quote from Catcher in the Rye, and said ‘I will be doing neither, if I get a zero, I get a zero.’ That was my little literary protest”

“We had a senior banquet where we went on a little boat in Pittsburgh, and there was a huge dinner. But I was participating in a hunger strike fundraiser, so I couldn't eat any food. I ended up taking a photo with an empty plate and all the food on the table.”

Ms. Volosin - “It’s so long ago that I can’t think of any.”

Mrs. Bashaw - “I was nominated best friends with my friend that I met in first grade.”

Ms. Bray - “On the first day of school, I got a job in the library and got to meet a lot of people.”

Dr. Wessel - “Horses and the outdoors rescued me when high school was socially challenging.”

Mr. Wich - “I used to do a WHGS audio station on 3rd floor Baldwin. It was my DJ set hour but it was very embarrassing and I probably played something too profane.” 

Mr. Young - “In chemistry class, my lab partner and I performed a really neat reaction, so I wanted to keep it. So I put a test tube and stopper in my shirt pocket. But the reaction produced gas and when enough gas filled up, the stopper launched into the sky, almost into my eye.”

Mrs. Matthews - “I went here for high school. One time my senior year I got caught off campus and got in trouble. I was someone who never did anything wrong, so I was really angry. But when I went to my head advisor’s office, he said ‘Really! You’ve never gotten in trouble before? Well it’s about time that you did.’”

Mrs. Williams - “In my high school English class during my sophomore year, we had to write a paper that was an opinion paper. English clearly wasn't my favorite subject because I’m a math teacher now, but I received a D. My teacher handed my paper back and told me that my opinion was wrong. That impacted me a lot, including how I felt about English and how you treat people directly. Today as a teacher, I do my best not to do that, and encourage my students with positive feedback.”

Ms. Stahl - “I was an ‘overachiever’ for much of my life, including high school—I did a lot. Despite that, I was deeply anxious, and actually quite lost. I was lucky to have someone like Dr Bertenshaw enter my life sophomore year, who, beyond teaching me chemistry, reminded me, ‘life is a journey, not a destination.’ Fast forward to my senior year birthday: I insisted on going skydiving. After basically signing away my life, I boarded a small private jet and ascended 13,000 feet. ‘Position your body like a banana,’ my instructor said. ‘Right, how do I breathe?’ ‘Your skin will absorb the air…’ ‘Hmmm okay.’ And just like that, we plunged down. I relinquished all control, living in the thrill of the present in the most extreme way. It was one of those life-defining moments for me.