Second year math teacher, Miss Simunovich, took the role of freshman advisor in her second year of teaching year at River Dell.
After a year of teaching at River Dell, Simunovich wanted to step out of her comfort zone. She knew she wanted to get involved but was having trouble figuring out the perfect way. When Principal, Mr. Pepe, approached her and asked her to take over the position she immediately jumped at the opportunity.
“I’m not an athlete, I’m not going to lead the marching band, so what else could I do?”
Before Simunovich joined the River Dell staff, she was a math teacher at New Milford. She enjoyed being an advisor of the student council at New Milford, she wanted to incorporate that same experience into River Dell. “Student council was more school spirit, not grade specific, just more overall, but I’m excited to see how advising unfolds,” Simonovich explained.
Simunovich knew she was ready for a change. She has always taught Algebra I, geometry, and algebra II, so she wanted to modify her everyday routine a little bit. Miss Simunovich says, “At a point in your career, you’re ready to take on a new challenge and I was like okay my new challenge last year was switching schools, and now this will be my new challenge this year.”
As Simunovich took the role of being the freshman advisor, as she does Miss Schiff, an English teacher and junior class advisor, guided her along the way. Once Miss Simunovich found out that she was taking over, she immediately emailed Schiff, she gave Simunovich advice that was extremely helpful on the outlook of the freshman class advancing on to each grade. Miss Simunovich says, “She would tell me things that I wouldn’t catch on from the student perspective and what matters to the students.”
Miss Simunovich expressed how she’s really looking forward to this year and the upcoming years to interact and connect with the students. “I think the biggest thing I’m going to prioritize or hope to do is get the most feedback from them and cater to what they want,” said future freshman advisor.
