Introducing... (FC)

My name is Ms. Hegeman. I am just beginning at Thurgood Marshall Academy. I will be teaching 12th grade this year! I am looking forward to meeting my students and their families, and starting the school year!

I was born in South Jersey, just outside Philadelphia. If you google me, you'll find some awesome pictures of me with great haircuts from my time at the University of Notre Dame. I majored there in English and German. I was also a varsity rower. Maybe on an especially cold winter day, I'll wear my letter jacket to school. After Notre Dame, I worked as an assistant for a year, then I went on to the National University of Ireland, Galway, where I received an Irish studies degree (I thought I wanted to be a professor). I spent another year as an assistant before I went back to school again for my Masters in the Science of Teaching at Pace University. I taught for over two years at Queens Satellite High School for Opportunity, a transfer school in Jamaica, Queens.

I'm sure my second grade teacher would think it odd that I am where I am today. She wasn't nice. We had to read aloud on the spot all the time, and I would do everything I could to get out of it. I started despising reading, disliking books, and glaring at people who tried to make me read. My mother saw what was happening and bought me a book that almost single-handedly righted my reading problem: The Babysitters Club by Ann M. Martin. If you were born in the 90s, you probably never saw these books, but as a suburban second-grader in love with the idea of financial freedom through babysitting, I devoured these books. All of a sudden, I read two books a week. Today I am a fairly strong reader (although I do start to skim if I think what I am reading is becoming boring). I'm hopeful that you have all read something that grabbed your attention like these books grabbed mine, but if not, let me know and we will see if we can find something you'll love.

Finally, I hope you know that I take your preparation for college very seriously. But like William Glasser, I believe that "Learning is serious, but that doesn't mean it has to be grim." My aspiration for you is that you will be able to succeed in your first year of college. My aspiration for myself is that I will stay grounded and remember to enjoy every day I spend working with you!

Can't wait to start the school year!

Ms. Hegeman