Faculty

 **__ New Gym Teacher __** By Ton

It is a tragedy that Merrill’s gym teacher, Mr. Walter, is retiring. He has taught at Merrill for 17 years. He has been teaching for 29 years. It is going to be really sad when Mr. Walter leaves this school. There are three questions that are for Mr. Walter. First, why are you retiring? Second, what are you going to do when you leave? Finally, when are you retiring? Mr. Walter replied and said, “I’m retiring because I have been teaching for many years and it is time for me to do something different. I’m going to spend time with my grandchildren, hike, and work as a substitute teacher. I’m retiring at the end of May.” There are four questions that are for the new gym teacher, Mr. Kersten. First, are you excited to come to Merrill? Second, are you going to be nervous? Third, what are your plans going to be when you are gym teacher? Last, how long do you think you are going to be at Merrill? Mr. Kersten replied and said, “Yes, I’m going to be excited. Yes, because there are new kids I’m going to see. My plan is to teach the SPARK curriculum. I don’t now how long I will be at Merrill.”

 Mr. Guill is the 6th grade science Ela teacher. He is loved by all of his students and faculty. He has made a great impact on Merrill but now he has a chance to make a bigger impact at Yes Prep in his hometown in Texas. Many people probably want to know why he is leaving. He is leaving because he wants to become a leader at a school. He wants to become a leader so he can make a difference, and he feels that being as leader is the strongest way to make an impact. Mr. Guill decided to leave right before spring break. It was not an easy decision to make. Yes Prep stands for Youth Engage Service. Mr. Guill is a great teacher and will be spreading his knowledge to Yes Prep. Many people will miss him.
 * __ Guill is Leaving to make an impact on Yes Prep __** By Maya

Mrs. Malling the ELA math teacher is expecting twins! The baby’s names are going to be Ryan Malling and Andrew Malling. She is supposed to be due on August fifth but twins are usually expected to come earlier than usual. She has no other kids so she is probably really anxious to see how it will be to not only raise one baby but two little babies. Some of the questions that people have been asking is how long she will be gone on maternity leave? She will be gone until November and she is going to use her regular sick leave time plus 20 days from the sick bank The sick bank is where you give up one of your sick days and then you get an additional 10 days added to your sick days if you need them like Mrs. Malling does. Mrs. Malling is going to use her sick days because she would like to have more time to spend with her kids and, because she has twins, she needs all the extra time that she can get!
 * Mrs. Malling has twins on the way?!? **by Paradise 

by Haley There are a lot of new teachers here at Merrill such as the new 7th grade math teacher, the new G.T. teacher, two new special Ed teachers, and the new librarian. They all have different stories on why they are here at Merrill and why they decided to teach or help out in whatever department they help in.
 * __The New Special Ed Teacher__**

One example of a new teacher here at Merrill is Ms. Cook one of the new special Ed teachers. While interviewing Ms. Cook I learned a lot about her and why she’s a teacher and what her goals are this year at Merrill, she is a very nice teacher and could do a lot of good things for the school and the children in it. Ms. Cook decided to come teach here at Merrill because she was very excited about diversity and thought Merrill and Cory had a good way in building the community. This was Ms. Cooks first year at teaching in a middle school. Before she taught a kindergarten class. She realized she wanted to be a teacher because when she was younger she had the opportunity to help teach her younger siblings and that’s when she realized she loved teaching. Her mother inspired her to become a teacher, and when asking her how she liked it at Merrill she said she loved it. Ms. Cook went to college at Red Rocks community college and Regis University. Her goals here at Merrill are to help build a successful program to help students who need it. Her preferred method of discipline is the natural consequence and the same rules the school.

We are all happy to have Ms. Cook, and all the other teachers as well here at Merrill and welcom

By: Ebony
It is a pleasure to have new faculty members, at Merrill Middle School. We would like to say welcome to our new math teacher Mr. Zahharis and new librarian Ms. Hellems.

This is starting to be a new year for Ms. Hellems as our librarian. She has worked previously in bookstores but never in a school. She discovered she was interested in books by her children. She was fascinated by the amount of books that is in the school library. She said to herself “ This is cool.” Ms. Hellems has lived in Denver most of her life. She has two daughters, no pets. Hope the experience you live brings joy to you here at Merrill.

We would also like to present Mr. Zahharis, the new seventh and eighth grade math teacher. This will also be Mr. Zahharis’ first year in teaching. Mr. Zahharis has lived in Boulder, Colorado most of his life. He just moved here to Denver. He likes the atmosphere so far. Mr. Zahharis has good standards for his classroom. His preferred method for daily communication with parents is by email. Mr. Zahharis has an understandable disciplinary policy for his class. You get a few warnings, and if problem still occurs then students get lunch refocus, continuous disruption calls for a talk with parents. Mr. Zahharis wants to accomplish making learning fun for students.

We are very happy to have these new faculty members apart of the Merrill Jaguar faculty and hope each experience for these teachers and students is a joy. We Welcome You!