This year, Roosevelt High School introduced several new additions to the staff. Here is some information about a few of our new teachers:
Laura Anders
Laura Anders, the photography teacher and one of the drawing and painting teachers, has been teaching visual arts for 11 years. She previously worked at Mercer Island High School. Anders has lived in Seattle for 22 years and was excited when this position opened up because she loves the city.
Anders “loves Roosevelt’s dedication to addressing social issues and equity.” She hopes to grow the photography program by getting new cameras and introducing commercial photography, as well as become better connected to the community through photography.
Jonah Mix
Jonah Mix teaches geometry and Business Math. This year is his third year of teaching high school. He had previously been an SAT tutor. “You have less freedom as a tutor, so it’s nice to be a teacher where you get to decide what kids get to learn,” Mix said. Not only is he excited to teach, he’s specifically “really excited to teach geometry, it’s one of my favorite subjects.”
Mix also wants to add more to his math classes, “I hope to bring a more historical and philosophical approach to math.” He wants to use his past experience from being a high school student as a grounding tool to motivate him to be a supportive teacher for his students.
Hannah Mowry
After Scott Brown retired last year, Roosevelt opened up a position that had not been vacant for over 38 years: director of the bands. The role has been filled by Hannah Mowry.
Mowry previously co-directed the Mount Si High School band and has also taught marching band at Central Washington University.
Mowry plays the trumpet as well as making and performing her own music. She hopes to “continue [the band’s] legacy of excellence in Seattle” and help others “lead with love” during her time at Roosevelt.
Kailee Atkinson
Kailee Atkinson teaches Algebra 2 as well as geometry here at Roosevelt. When asked why she wanted to be a teacher, Atkison replied: “That feeling of unwelcomeness that I felt in a lot of STEM-related areas because of my gender — it was really annoying to me. And so now, that still is why. … I also had a lot of really horrible math teachers, like absolutely atrocious, … all of my math teachers were male, all of them. And then I got to college and all of my professors were male.”
She also mentioned how seeing people go without getting the extra help they need in school motivated her to teach. She hopes to positively impact the Roosevelt community, even with small things, such as smiling at kids in the halls and bringing joy and confidence back to the learning environment.
Along with teaching, Atkinson enjoys hiking and has even backpacked the Appalachian Trail in 22 days.
Emily Jackson
Emily Jackson teaches biology at Roosevelt — but at the beginning of her career, teaching wasn’t Jackson’s first choice. During university, she said she wanted to “go into research, for biology, specifically.” She continued, “I did a bunch of research in college, and I thought that would be fun. And then I wanted to be a vet, and I thought that would be fun. But I don’t like working with pet owners so much that I also don’t like working with people enough to be a doctor. So I was definitely on that track.”
While this is her first year as a full-time teacher, Jackson was a long-term substitute for a biology class at Cleveland High School.
She said that she wants to “prepare students for … a successful life.” Jackson has made it a goal to “make sure that they [students] all have what they need for a science background to go do whatever they want to do.” In addition, she often enjoys baking new things, and has even made cookies for her class to enjoy after a test.
Olivia Donohue
Olivia Donohue is a teacher for the deaf and hard of hearing. Last year, she worked with a variety of age groups, ranging from preschool to grade 12 at a dozen different schools. She is looking forward to committing to work at one school and connecting further with colleagues and students.
Donohue wanted to work at Roosevelt because of its deaf and hard of hearing program. “Seattle Public Schools is known for trying to build their deaf education and the support they’re applying to individual students; I wanted to be a part of that team,” she said.
Donohue also hopes to bring more awareness to the deaf and hard of hearing culture at Roosevelt, “I think our school should be more aware of cultural trends, holidays, recognition, [relating to] ASL.” She continued, “We can work together to make the school more deaf-friendly.” In her free time she loves to hike, read, and spend lots of time outdoors.
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