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By Marlene Rashidi

“I have always wanted to teach at Lincoln High. I guess you could say it is my dream school,” first-year English teacher Nicole Barnes said. Barnes chose to teacher English because she thought it was a fantastic vehicle for exploring ideas.

Teaching was not her child­hood dream, but she became more interested in teaching when she was in college, and she likes the fact that she gets to help stu­dents find their strength. Her goal is also to help students figure out ways they can use those talents, and to help each student she encoun­ters succeed. Barnes feels like it’s a dream come true to be part of the Links family.

The Lincoln High com­munity is honored to have these other new teachers this year: Nicholas Madsen is a new Business teacher, Laura Jeidy-Brown is an English teacher, Rachel Swarts is an FCS teacher, Melissa Terry is a Science teacher, Catherine Gar­cia is a Spanish teacher, Janine Theiler is a Spanish teacher, Megan Statton is a PE teacher, Alysia Harvey is a Voice teacher, Ashley Sied­hoff is an ELL teacher, Lindsay Herting is a Social Studies teacher, Jessica Fricke is a Math teacher, Dan Beckmann is a PE teacher, Jack Bisbee is an English teacher, Amy Townsley is a emmber of the Student Child Learning Center staff, Pat Stolzer also a Student Child Learning Center staff, and Tanner Penrod is our new Associate Principal.

These are the new adults students will look up to for answers, success, and encour­agement. They all have reason to why Lincoln High seemed like the place for them to help educate students. Nicholas Madsen is a Business teacher who this is in his third year of teaching. Madsen used to teach at the Expelled Students Program. He graduated in 2008 from Wesleyan University and UNL. He has so much passion for business to the point where he wants to help students know the benefits of it. H dedicates himself to teaching business to high school students. He loves teaching adolescents and preparing them for the real life after high school. When he was a kid; he wanted to become an NBA player, but some­how teaching attracted him more and stole his heart. As a graduate from Lincoln High, he loved and still loves the culture, staff, and student body of the Links to the point where he chose Lincoln High as the place he can share his knowl­edge and help give students the best learning environment possible.

Janine Theiler is a Span­ish teacher who once taught at Lincoln High from 2000- 2005 and now is back to fulfill her goals, which are to take student’s needs and interests into account and trying to keep things as active and authentic as possible, constantly monitor­ing student’s progress, integrat­ing social and emotional skills. Theiler switched majors more than once, but in her junior year in college was when she decided to seriously pursue into education. She believes that teaching Spanish is the best profession in the world no doubt about it. The fact that she learns something new every day and there is not a day that goes by without something un­expected happening keeps her on her toes and makes her love Spanish more.

I asked Theiler how she helps students suc­ceed. “I take student needs and interests into account when planning, try to keep things as active and authentic as possible…constantly monitoring student progress, integrating social and emotional skills, learning strate­gies…there are more than a few things to consider when aiming to support student success.”

Rachel Swarts is a Fam­ily and Consumer Sciences teacher, and this is her first year teaching. The fact that she’s able to teach about cooking, families, nutrition, child devel­opment, relationships, culture, personal development, teen is­sues and many more makes her adore FCS. She chose to work at Lincoln High because the teachers and students here are from many walks in life and it also has so much history being Lincoln’s original school.

These new teachers are determined to help student to have the potential to achieve beyond all measures. It is rare to have a teacher at Lincoln High who doesn’t want the best for their students. At Lincoln High, students don’t just learn, they learn enough to the degree where they can create some­thing great and share with others.

Welcome, New Teachers.