Monday, October 5, 2009

New Addition To The English Department

By Kristin Piotrowski

With the new school year, we wander the halls looking for familiar faces, instead we find strangers. In the English hallway there have been more changes then anywhere else at Sparta High, old teachers and the new ones. Katherine Keeney is one of the replacements and she is taking the place of Anna Peterson.

Keeney came from Aquinas High school after a year of teaching there. The classes that she teaches English 10 Literature, English 10 Composition, Freshman Literature, and Great Novels. "I think that my favorite class to teach would the the literature classes," stated Keeney. When asked what her hobbies and other things were, she did not seem to be in the least bit unwilling to tell. She said that she lives in La Crosse with her husband and two children, one is a 22 month old girl and her step daughter, 11. She loves photography, watching movies, reading, and being outside. Her favorite book is The Color Purple by Alice Walker and her favorite movie is The Usual Suspects. A little bit more about Keeney is that she has two dogs and is expecting another child in January. When she was asked which school she liked better, Aquinas or Sparta, she was hesitant to answer then said "I think I like Sparta better, I don't want to bash Aquinas, but they are different."

Emilia Johnson, a student in Keeney 's 8th hour Great Novels class, stated, "She is really nice, she tries to work with the students and be as nice as possible." Afterwards she told me that "She interacts well with the students."

But, what happened to Anna Peterson? Peterson is still within the school district but is now doing what she always wanted to do, Dale Stafslien stated. He later said, "We all move on, but I'm happy for her." Stafslien was also the one who explained what Peterson was now doing, along with Sam Russ. They both said that she was the reading specialist and worked with every school in the district so they will still see her. The reading specialist involves helping teachers teach students. She goes and finds the best books and recommends them to the teachers. Everyone I asked said that she was a good teacher and will miss her.

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