By Bertina Xue

New Spanish teacher Lindsay Davis taught for four years at Heath School. She has previously lived in Madrid and Costa Rica, and both her parents and brother are teachers.

Is there a huge difference between the high school and Heath?

Heath is tiny. I think it’s the smallest of the elementary schools. I taught kindergarten through 7th grade, so my schedule was a lot of different 30 minute classes and tons of different grades. Whereas now, I really want to work on becoming a better teacher, so I felt like I needed a longer class time.

Did you have to change your teaching style at all to adapt to students here?

For the past four years, if I walked into a classroom there was immediate excitement and a love of learning. Here, you have to earn kids’ respect and attention a little bit more just because of the longer class period. It’s certainly harder here; at this level kids already know Spanish, so the classes are kind of like humanities classes while speaking in Spanish rather than learning colors, numbers and family members.

What’s your favorite part of the high school so far?

I love the opportunities and roles for students. I feel there’s a student presence, like there are student-created clubs here. There are just so many opportunities for students to shine academically and also in what they’re interested in. It feels very much like a community in which the students have a place rather than being just teacher-organized and directed. It’s really neat seeing kids be leaders and presenters.

So what do you have the most trouble with teaching here so far?

Kids that aren’t excited. I’m still trying to figure out how to motivate kids because if they’re having trouble, I feel confident that I could help them explain things. For kids that walk in disinterested, I’m still trying to figure out how to make them see that I really care about them. I think it’s important to have that connection.

How did you decide to start teaching here instead of continuing at Heath?

I kind of had a moment last year where I panicked and thought, “Well, I keep teaching kids that are eight years old, so will I have the Spanish of an eight year old?” So I decided to apply because I want to keep learning Spanish and keep teaching higher and higher levels. I thought that would be the way to do it in Brookline.

Bertina Xue can be contacted at [email protected]