Arcadia High School (AHS) has welcomed several new teachers for the incoming school year, one of which is Ms. Hedyeh Rezai, a Special Education teacher and Resource Specialist (RSP) for math.
Ms. Rezai co-teaches with Ms. Sabrina Galvan for Algebra 2 and Ms. Tamra Erickson for Geometry. She recently joined the Arcadia Unified School District (AUSD) from North Hollywood, previously teaching at a school there for about three years. She came to AHS because she heard it was a “great school” alongside “wanting a new experience.”
As for her own education, Ms. Rezai went to University of California, Santa Barbara for an undergraduate degree; California State University, Los Angeles for her masters; and California State University, East Bay for her special education credentials as well as her second masters. Ms. Rezai’s previous experiences have followed her along in the journey to adapt to AHS’ environment.
Ms. Rezai has also taught science, health, and subjects at the AP level in high schools. As for teaching itself, her method is to provide students with examples, as well as keeping an open mind in order to see the different learning styles of each student. This way, she can adapt if students would like to learn another way. Despite having taught several subjects, Ms. Rezai’s most enjoyable subject is math, for her usual classroom is solving logical problems by using teamwork—working together.
“I teach math, so I like to break things (the problems) down into simpler things, when the concepts may be difficult to understand. It’s important to be open, and I’m always open to new ideas when it comes to teaching students,” said Ms. Rezai.
When in the classroom, Ms. Rezai provides the students with a quiet environment to work in. She supports the students if necessary during lessons, but the most significant result that she would like to see is the students’ succeeding by themselves. Ms. Rezai chose to teach so she could watch students complete great feats, and to be able to be a part of their learning process.
“My favorite part about teaching is when students can understand concepts that can be hard to grasp at first,” said Ms. Rezai.
When asked about how she would describe herself as a teacher in three words, Ms. Rezai said, “I would say, creative, energetic, and thoughtful.” Rather than sticking to written textbook rules, Ms. Rezai prefers to provide her own ideas to the students in order for them to really think outside the box. She encourages students to discover creative ways to solve situations.
“Encouragement is the key to success,” said Ms. Rezai. After all, she wishes to support students in their education by being patient, and understanding what they need.
