LYNN — Four years ago Brianna Goulet graduated from Lynn English as a runner-up for “Most likely to become a teacher.” She just proved those voters right.
The recent Framingham State University graduate just accepted a position as a math teacher at her former high school, beginning this fall. With a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and secondary education, Goulet is excited to come full circle with the school that taught her to love teaching.
“I always joked about teaching here,” said Goulet. “I remember telling some of my old teachers that I knew I was going to be a colleague of theirs in four years.”
Thomas Strangie, Lynn English principal, said he believes Goulet is going to bring some excitement and exuberance into the school with her newly appointed position. He said there is a large number of faculty that are also graduates of the high school, including himself.
“It shows they care about the school and want to come and give back,” he said. “It’s kind of like coming home.”
Goulet’s love of teaching was formed during her years at LEHS with a number of teachers who guided her along, especially Paul Mailloux, whom she’ll still refer to as Mr. Mailloux until he gives her permission to call him anything else. She said his charisma, enthusiasm, and acts of caring are the reasons she is a teacher today.
“He persuaded me, more or less, to become a teacher and not in the verbal sense, but by the way he taught,” she said. “There was something in the way he cared about our education and our worth.”
The 2014 graduate, also runner-up for class ”Drama queen” and ”Most likely to knock you down on the way to lunch,” is ready to teach her own body of students as her first job out of college. She will be teaching 10th grade geometry, but that could change before the start of the school year.
“I feel very lucky because I know that not a lot of college graduates are getting jobs right out of the gate,” she said. “I’m very fortunate that I don’t have to wait a year or wait around for a job to open up so I’m honored to have this opportunity.”
A few months ago, she submitted her résumé and cover letter to the Lynn Public Schools administration building, with the hope that something would open up. Goulet was in contact on multiple occasions with Vice Principal Jennifer Mancaniello and math department head Kathleen Bonnevie before they invited her to come in for an interview. She was offered the job just a few days later. Although Goulet grew attached to Woburn Memorial High school during her student teaching tenure, the LEHS alumna was ready to come back home.
“I always wanted to teach in the Lynn community and it’s even better that it’s my old high school,” she said. “This is where I grew up, it’s my home, and I’ve been dedicated to the Lynn Public Schools my entire life.”
Other than holding excitement for being in charge of her own classroom and her own students, Goulet hopes to break the stereotype that math is boring and too hard to learn. She plans on introducing competitiveness with some entertaining and educational math games, such as scavenger hunts and fast-paced activities. She believes when kids are able to get competitive it encourages them to get excited about learning.
“There will definitely be times where I make mistakes and that’s fine because where there are mistakes, there’s room for improvement,” she said. “I definitely want to sharpen up my math skills before I go and teach a lesson, because once you give a student information, they take it in and trust what you’re saying to them is true.”
Aside from spending her days teaching math to 10th graders, Goulet will be going back to school herself. She’ll spend her evenings in night classes as she studies to get a Master of Arts in teaching math at Salem State University.
“I want to leave a mark on the students here just as my teachers did for me when I was a student,” she said.
