After three years in (partial) retirement, SHS Spanish teacher George Haddad is back and better than ever as a substitute teacher. Before retiring in 2021, Haddad taught both French and Spanish, and this is his second time filling in as a long-term substitute.
Haddad was looking for a long-term substitute position this year when SHS world language department chair Kathryn Ciulla asked him to fill in, and he gladly accepted.
Since his retirement, Haddad said the curriculum has changed to be slightly more proficiency-based. He is excited to be learning the new teaching models, noting that he is trying to find a balance between what he knows works as a teacher and the newer strategies he is learning this year.
When asked why he returned to teaching after retirement, Haddad responded, “It’s just in me to teach.” He enjoys helping students progress in their understanding of the language and recognize the positive effects of all their hard work. He always tries to create interesting, fair, and clear lessons, and while most go well, when one doesn’t, he considers what went wrong and how he can better teach the material.
Haddad wants his students to enjoy coming to his class–to have fun with the language and feel like they’re making progress. He explained, “I’ve always had the philosophy of putting my students first. I always say to myself, if I don’t come to do 110 percent and give them all the chances for success, then I shouldn’t be doing this.”
Ciulla emphasized Haddad’s determination to help struggling students and his persistence in not giving up on them. As a former student in Haddad’s Spanish classroom when she was in high school, Ciulla praised him for having a great, light-hearted sense of humor while ensuring students understood the concepts and material. In fact, Ciulla credits Haddad with inspiring her to pursue a career in education: “He is one of the reasons I became a Spanish teacher–because of his ability to engage with his students and make it fun. He just has that way about him. So I said to myself, ‘Jeez, this guy can have so much fun with this–I think it would be something I would want to do every day as a job.’”
Haddad commented that learning and teaching different languages has given him many opportunities to travel and work abroad. Before teaching at Scituate High School, he spent many years in France, Egypt, and Lebanon: “It was such a different culture that taught me so much about the world. It just showed me there’s a whole big world out there.”
Haddad is excited to be back in the classroom and helping students learn the languages he loves. He has enjoyed seeing former colleagues and meeting many new teachers and students. He stated, “Even if I’m here for just a short time, it is a chance to teach somebody something that I enjoy, and maybe they’ll remember some of those things.”