Corrected and updated Aug. 29, 2014
The Bromfield School and Hildreth Elementary School are each welcoming three new faculty members this year. Although new to Harvard, all have prior teaching experience, and all have done graduate study beyond their bachelor’s degrees.
New at HES
Rachael Fusco will become special education coordinator for the elementary school. Most recently, Fusco has been director of education at the Walden Street School in Concord. She began her career in education as a school psychologist. Later she served as special education team chairperson in Westford and then in Reading.
Erin Sintros will teach wellness at HES. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Fusco has also had a 25-year connection to the Girl Scouts and won an award as an outstanding leader in 2007. She has been a member of the President’s Council on Civic Participation. She holds a master’s degree in education from Boston University as well as a certificate of advanced graduate studies from Cambridge College.
Also at HES, Erin Sintros will fill the new half-time position in wellness. She, too, has a master’s degree in education from Boston University. Sintros is returning to teaching after spending the past six years caring for her two children. Before that, she taught physical education and health in Ipswich and Stoughton, as well as in Sydney, Australia (where she did her student teaching).
Sintros said her classes will cover topics such as nutrition, body systems, and community health. “I am looking forward to incorporating movement into my classes as much as possible,” she wrote in an email to the Press. She also plans to create a website that will be accessible through the school’s page.
Deborah Walker. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
New as a fifth-grade teacher, Deborah Walker has already been part of the Harvard school system since 2007 as a math interventionist. She has also been involved in the schools as the parent of two Bromfield graduates. Earlier in her career, Walker taught fourth-graders in Reading and Lincoln. She holds a master’s degree in education from Lesley College.
New at Bromfield
Andrew Wright, who will teach eighth-grade U.S. history at Bromfield, says he has wanted to be a teacher since his own high-school days. His enthusiasm for history began in college, and he has taught the subject in Lexington for the past 10 years. His master’s degree in education is from Framingham State University.
One of Wright’s favorite projects with his Lexington classes, he said in a phone interview, was to set up a mock town meeting, with students formulating warrant articles and debating them. He also incorporates lots of critical thinking exercises and writing projects into his assignments, he said.
English teacher Luke Reynolds. (Courtesy photo)
Luke Reynolds says the excitement of teaching seventh-grade English is “watching students learn to speak and write with mastery.” His goal for his classes, he says, is, “every student speaks, every student writes, every student reads, every day.”
Reynolds has taught English/language arts in Hudson and also in Farmington, Conn. He spent three years teaching adult education classes in York, England. He holds a master’s degree in English from Northern Arizona University.
A favorite project has been the production of a classroom anthology of student writing, usually in the spring. Reynolds says writing for publication helps students understand the importance of repeated revision, to open their work to the wider community outside the school. Classes donate the proceeds from selling their anthology to a charity they have chosen.
Jessica Haroutunian teaches French. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Jessica Haroutunian, who joins Bromfield’s World Languages Department this fall, has taught English in France and French in this country. She studied theater and teaching and later did graduate work in comparative literature. Her degrees are from La Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris and from Rutgers University.
Haroutunian says she did not set out to become a teacher, but she took a teaching job and learned that she loved it. For the past four years, she has taught French in Fitchburg, where she taught all levels of the language. She also developed a workshop, in collaboration with the school’s art department, in which her students wrote haiku in French. The poems were later exhibited at the Fitchburg Art Museum.
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected and updated. In the original article, Ms. Haroutunian’s educational credentials and experience were reported incorrectly.
