Sahuaro’s English department has a new addition to its team! Ms. Sonia Reichert began working at Sahuaro near the end of the first quarter of this school year, 2020-2021. Transferred by TUSD from Doolen Middle School, this is her second year as a teacher. However, she has worked with students and children in other capacities for years. Currently, she is teaching English 9, 10, and 12 classes online.

“I have always enjoyed sharing my knowledge with younger people. I taught my sister how to read when she was five and I was eleven,” she said. “I would often read aloud to my sister and little brother and when I grew up I found myself working with children in daycare centers, sharing my knowledge just as I did back then.” Ms. Riechert has also worked afterschool programs and summer programs. “Additionally, I have taught craft classes and a theater class for children. As a mom, I homeschooled my children and all of my teaching experiences have led to my becoming a teacher.”

Teaching online has been confusing and has required a lot of teachers to adapt, so transferring schools during a pandemic must have been difficult. Ms. Reichert is nonetheless empathetic towards her students as online has been difficult on both ends.

“I like teaching for Sahuaro because my students are very respectful, clever, and fun. I like to learn about their varying perspectives as I read their writing for my class. Also, everyone I have talked to in the office seems to be quite nice. The other teachers I have gotten to know are great as well,” she said.

What is important in teaching varies among teachers, but Ms. Riechert believes that “Everyone has the capacity to learn whatever they desire to learn. When they find the spark, they will do the learning. Additionally, improving reading and writing skills will help students develop the tools to learn anything they want to.”

Ms. Riechert is not only an English teacher, but also a sewing master and a bit of a gamer. “I have several hidden talents that some don’t know of. One is that I can sew many types of things including dolls, clothes, and tote bags,” she confessed. “I like playing video games, but I try not to let myself play them too often because I would never do anything else.” She also enjoys reading and writing snail mail letters and sending mail art.

If Ms. Riechert were to win the lottery, she made it clear that she would focus on becoming a published writer or create things from fabric and travel around the world selling at craft fairs for fun.

She enjoys the sounds of music and knows a few songs off the top of her head. “I know the lyrics of pretty much every Violent Femmes song. I also know all of the lyrics to “Starman” by David Bowie and “White Rabbit” By Jefferson Airplane. My taste in music is mainly EDM but those are hard to sing along to,” she said.

Ms. Riechert hopes her students can reach their full reading and literacy potential with the help of her class. She hopes that her students “will remember me as being helpful and my class as being filled with many learning opportunities.”