Meet Profe Meyer, a new addition to the Ross High School staff this school year in our Foreign Languages Department after the retirement of Mrs. Dougherty. Bringing excitement and energy into Room 251, she is a first-year Spanish teacher from northern Ohio.
Graduating with only 66 people in her senior class, Meyer attended Marion Local High School and then obtained her Master’s Degree at Bowling Green State University. Part of her higher education included an 8-month study abroad in Spain where she lived with a “host mom.”
Meyer’s host mom’s delicious cooking inspired her to make gazpacho, a cold Spanish tomato soup, for her students earlier this semester. “My philosophy is that Spanish has to be fun. Otherwise it’s just really hard. So we will do fun activities, we take those brain breaks … [a]nd I’m very much so understanding of that,” Meyer stated.
RHS Sophomore Shawal Rai from her Spanish I class describes Meyer as “very fun and very kind.” RHS Principal Mr. Martin and Assistant Principal Mrs. Butz also greatly appreciate Meyer’s energetic approach to teaching. Martin stated, “She’s very enthusiastic, every time I’m in her classroom … kids seem to be up and moving and engaged … she’s off to a great start at RHS.”
Mrs. Butz stated, “She’s really buying into Ross culture and diving headfirst,” adding, “She’s great.”
When asked about the origin of her love for Spanish, Meyer shared a memory from 5th grade when tomato farmers came in and one of their sons could only speak Spanish, “At lunch, he would sit by himself. And I just felt like nobody should have to sit by themselves just because they don’t understand what other people are saying. Now here I am.”
Some of Meyer’s specific favorites from Spanish culture are paella mixta, a rice, chicken, seafood and vegetable dish seasoned with saffron, as well as the word tiquismiquis, which means picky. She has a beautiful flamenco scarf (Spanish dancing scarf) hanging next to her desk, which reminds her that Spanish is not just a language, but it’s also “the dancing, it’s the clothing, it’s the artwork, it’s the heritage, the pride that the people have.”
As a foreign language teacher, Meyer strongly believes in Communicative Language Learning, which is a method “where you’re using the language that you’re learning.” She stated, “We speak, read, write and hear Spanish every single day in my class.” She encourages students to learn Spanish to help them empathize with others and communicate with others, as there are now over 40 million Spanish speakers in America.
Meyer loves that her students “are willing to just have fun with [her], to speak, to talk, just have fun, to be a little bit goofy in [the] classroom.” Her most proud moment in the classroom so far comes from the Spanish color words, “puzzle piece posters [that] each student got … to color.” (See photo.)
Meyer is already known for her kindness and brightness here at RHS. Welcome to Ross, Profe Meyer.
