Joanna Khalil

Joanna Khalil is a 10th grade chemistry teacher at the high school. Previously, Khalil taught in both Texas, and Jamaica Plain Massachusetts. Khalil enjoys doing outdoor activities and spending time with family.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I like doing martial arts, I like drawing, I like reading and I like traveling with my family. I just got my second degree black belt in Tae-Kown-Do, I like doing Kapura, which is what I’ve done in the past, and Muay Thai kickboxing. My family and I go hiking, we love to be outside. We have two kayaks that we got over the pandemic. We went to Acadia and we went rock climbing, so my kids were climbing faces of rocks and they’re nine and six. If it’s outside, we like to do it. We like to camp, we camp in yurts, we camp in tents. My kids are probably the most important thing in my life.

Why did you choose to teach science?

I chose science because I have loved science since I was a little girl, and that is what I majored in college. I was a biology major and I started out in veterinary science. I worked in an aquarium and I worked in a zoo. Then I thought I was going to medical school, but I worked for Teach for America as a break and found out I really like teaching.

What is your favorite thing about teaching chemistry?

I really like that chemistry can seem frustrating but then once kids get into it, they can see it and it opens up a world for them that maybe they thought was closed, and they’re like ‘oh my God!’ and then “oh that was so easy!” So that aha moment of “oh!” and the joy of connecting things to what they’ve seen in life and why it actually works the way it does is the reason why I like chemistry.

What about your family motivates you to be a good teacher?

My family talks a lot about student experiences. Sometimes when I’m grading I’ll have a discussion with my children about how a student has been coming to see me for help and now they are doing so much better in my class. Or about how a student is not asking questions in class, like my son who is an introvert, so I’m going to reach out to them. Sometimes there will be stuff between students that I talk about with my kids, so it’ll be these two kids having something happening and we discuss how they could go about it differently, so my children get insight into being a better kid that way.