Spanish teacher Amarilys Heard will be departing after 14 years as a faculty member and mom to two alumni. A veteran of the Spanish department, Heard has taught every Spanish class offered at school with the exception of Spanish III, a role continuously taken by her friend and former coworker Nicole Gonzalez. But no matter which class she taught, Heard loved interacting with her students.
“I think it was seeing everybody participate in Spanish,” Heard said. “If I could get anybody to speak Spanish, even if it wasn’t perfect, that was really gratifying for me.”
In addition, Heard said that she enjoyed the process of implementing a service component into her AP Spanish Language class, something that was started just last year. This school year, her class donated money and supplies via a food and supply drive to Puerto Rico after the destruction caused by Hurricane Irma. Although the WE Service component had a bumpy start, Heard said that she is happy with how the program is shaping out.
“I think that’s something unique, [and] I would love to see other classes being able to tie curriculum to the community,” Heard said.
Heard has taken her love of Spanish outside the classroom, being a core developer of the Spanish competition team. She also has led many spring and summer break trips abroad, including a trip two years ago to Portugal and Spain with seniors Kevin Wang, Charlie Tang and Parker Jochum, among others.
“That’s probably my favorite of all of them,” Heard said. “All of them have been great, but with those kids, that was the best.”
The arts hallway has been one of Heard’s favorite locations to teach, as she developed many close friendships with faculty in nearby classrooms. She loved being near photography and yearbook teacher Ryan Bowden, as well as psychology teacher Donna Walker. In response to the question of if she had a favorite class, Heard gave a surprising response: her favorite group of students wasn’t from a class, but from her current advisory.
“I’ve had awesome advisories, but this year’s advisory was my favorite,” Heard said. “We were like people in the morning, not teacher [and] students. They could see when I was frustrated and they would ask, ‘What’s the matter?’ They are pretty awesome.”
Heard said that the event she’ll miss the most is Headmaster’s Day, noting that former Headmaster Craig Maughan’s last Headmaster’s Day “was the grand [finale] of it all.” While mentioning traditions and events that she missed, Heard offered one piece of advice:
“Bring back water day!” Heard said. “Not silly string day, water day. I always looked forward to that.”
