Janet Kelley

Janet Kelley joins the high school staff this year as a 10th and 12th grade English teacher. Kelley previously taught in the Boston area and Indiana. In her free time, Kelley enjoys running, playing the ukulele and reading.

Where were you before working at the high school?

Before coming to Boston, I lived in Indiana where I was trained and certified to teach. I worked at Penn High School, which was very similar to BHS. Later, I moved to Boston and I raised my family. I have two kids, so I stayed home for a while. Though I wasn’t working full time, I worked in a few private schools and did a lot of volunteering for 826 Boston.

What are you looking forward to this year in your new classes?

For my 10th grade classes, I’m really looking forward to having more socratic seminars. As for my 12th grade class, Craft of Writing, it’s just my dream class. It’s what I love to do, it’s what I love to teach, and the students all choose to take it so they’re motivated. That makes a huge difference. I love all students, but I especially love the energy of kids who are engaged and who want to be there.

How do you enjoy yourself outside of school?

I started running during COVID, and although I’m very bad at it, I love it. I’m getting ready to run the Boston Women’s 10k, which I did last year. During the race, they close down Boston and you feel like you’re a marathon runner. I also take ukulele lessons and belong to a ukulele group. I started a couple years before COVID and I’m still pretty terrible and can hardly sing. However, I started playing because I love Amanda Palmer, who is a singer and performer from the area that plays ukulele. With some inspiration from her, I was like, “I’m gonna play the ukulele,” because you can’t take yourself seriously when you’re playing the ukulele, so it’s the perfect de-stressing activity; it’s just hilarious.