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When Teachers Leave the Nest

Have you ever been shopping at Walmart at 10:30 at night and seen a Woodland teacher standing in the checkout line wearing baggy sweats and a hoodie? Most students don’t think about their teachers living their lives outside of the school setting. However, teachers don’t camp out on the football field and roast marshmallows every night. When they leave their offices, teachers go home to actual houses and real lives, just like students do.

Woodland students were very surprised to see a viral Youtube video of Mike Magas, a business teacher at Woodland, featured in a Michael’s Jewelers commercial this summer. It is currently being aired on sports television networks, and features him acting as a businessman speaking to a future son-in-law about his daughter’s engagement ring. Magas agrees that this experience was unforgettable.

“Filming over the summer and the whole on-set experience was very new to me,” says Magas. “If given the opportunity, I would definitely enjoy doing this again.”

Magas is not the only teacher who fills his summer months with non-school-related work. There are several other Woodland teachers who find their extra time filled with opportunities that take them out of the classroom and into the “real” world.

Jill Blasi, Woodland Science department head and Marine biology teacher, used to volunteer at Mystic Aquarium over the summers. She has also visited Belize with her Marine Biology students to snorkel, explore coral reefs, and observe the animals and plants in the Caribbean ocean. She hopes to travel there again within the next two years.

“The students love the opportunity to study out in the field,” says Blasi, “and it’s great that they get to see countries outside of America and learn about the wildlife in the ocean.”

Meghan Geary, a Humanities teacher, loves music and is a fantastic vocalist. She co-advises Woodland Worldwide, and helps run Woodland’s annual cabaret. Last year, she sang during the “Cocktail Hour” of homecoming, and her skills are appreciated by all Woodland students and staff. Mrs. Geary also plays in a band called Group Therapy with William Carangelo, an applied technologies teacher at Woodland.

“Our band plays at restaurant venues and cafes,” says Carangelo, “and we are hoping to start playing at some weddings and other events. I play the drums and occasionally the guitar, and Mrs. Geary is our lead singer. We love what we do.”

Mark Mierzejewski, a physics teacher at Woodland, has a history of avid beekeeping. The Buttermilk Falls Apiary was a brand of honey that was run by Mierzejewski until about three years ago. Bears were knocking down hives and eating the honey, so it was too great of a profit loss to keep the company going. However, it wasn’t about the money to Mierzejewski.

“I originally started beekeeping to help pollinate my garden,” said Mierzejewski, “and it became a hobby that really paid for itself. It became less about profit, because I enjoyed raising and learning about the bees.”

Society stresses that each individual has some sort of talent- he or she just has to discover it. Although this is normally directed towards students and young people, we tend to forget that our educators lead interesting, multi-faceted lives outside the hallowed halls of Woodland Regional High School.

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Alyssa is the Executive Online Editor and has spent two full semesters at Hawk Headlines. She loves U.S. History and her pet fish, Benjamin.

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