By ARABELLA BALGOBIND
It can be discouraging for a newly-hired teacher to meet students over a computer, but Jericho High School’s newest Spanish and Italian teacher, Ms. Varkey, is up for the challenge.
Ms. Varkey is adapting to this new method of virtual learning. She said, “I remember I got my first laptop in my junior year of high school, but even working with laptops in class was such a rare thing.”
Ms. Varkey engages with her Italian students online and in person while simultaneously teaching them how to conjugate past tense verbs.
Ms. Varkey did not have her eyes set on teaching when she attended the London School of Economics to major in economics. However, she said, “The entire time I was in grad school for economics, I really missed Italian and language studies.”
Ms. Varkey explained that her favorite part of her undergraduate studies was the ability to study both economics and language. In the end, she said, “I loved Italian more, and I decided to pursue that and teach language.”
Ms. Varkey likes utilizing websites such as Wizer that make her lessons more accessible to fully remote and hybrid students.
Ms. Varkey speaks 4 languages in addition to English. She said, “My parents speak Malayalam, an Indian language, but I went on to learn Spanish, Italian, and French over the course of my high school career.” Ms. Varkey thanks her Italian teacher for making her fall in love with the language and culture.
Ms. Varkey has made it a point to connect with her students even from a distance. Freshman Christina M. said that Ms. Varkey is “Balancing the obstacles of both in-school and remote students with ease.”
Ms. Varkey actually began her teaching career while in middle school. “I almost became YouTube famous for making videos in English translating Hindi songs. I got over 1 million views,” she said. Now Ms. Varkey is not only a professional teacher, but as of this past Labor Day, she is engaged to be married.