BASH has two new English teachers this year with very different backgrounds.

Mrs. Hilbert – who teaches 11th grade Academic English, 12th grade Social Change, and 12th grade Dystopia – grew up in Gilbertsville and has a marketing background. Mrs. Towne – who teaches 10^th grade Academic English and 12^th grade Identity – grew up in Lancaster and taught on an Indian reservation in Arizona before coming to BASH.

Mrs. Hilbert said she is enjoying her first year at BASH.

“I love it here, it’s great. I enjoy helping my students and it’s a wonderful experience!” she said.

She graduated from St. Pius X High School in Pottstown in 2002 and had a marketing job before becoming a teacher, but realized she didn’t like it.

“I realized that I loved reading and writing so I went back to school to become a teacher,” she said.

She went to Kutztown University to earn a Masters in Secondary Education, concentrating in English. She also is currently taking other classes there in her free time.

Mrs. Hilbert says she tries to work with each of her student’s individual needs. Mr. DiLanzo is currently working with her as a mentor teacher,

“Mr. DiLanzo has really helped me learn the curriculum, he’s also been around when I needed someone to vent to. He gives great advice!”

Outside of taking classes at Kutztown and teaching, Mrs. Hilbert has coached field hockey at Junior High East for two years and advises the TAC (Tabletop and Card games) Club after school on Wednesdays.

She sometimes volunteers at the ASPCA and she is currently learning to cook. At home she lives with her husband and dog.

Mrs. Towne teaches 10^th grade Academic English and 12^th grade Identity. She grew up in Lancaster. Before coming to BASH, she student taught at a Navajo Indian Reservation in Window Rock, Arizona, as a social studies teacher. She has experience teaching American History, government, economics, and has taught a student leadership course.

She said teaching English is different than social studies in that social studies courses are taught in chronological order, English courses generally are not, so the teacher has to decide the order of things. She said she doesn’t favor one subject over the other. “I love social studies content and structure, but with English I have more freedom to analyze different topics.”

She said her teaching philosophy is to make a relationship with her students, sparking interests towards different perspectives. She wants to show them different cultures to expand students’ views of the world, beyond what just Boyertown has to offer.

Mrs. Towne said she always wanted to be a teacher.

“When I was an elementary school student, I thought I wanted to be an elementary teacher, I tutored my peers in late elementary and I knew it was what I wanted to be,” she said. “But when I got to middle school, I thought it was the coolest job ever to be a middle school teacher so I wanted to become that, though when I got to high school, it stuck in my mind that I was going to become a high school teacher.”

Mrs. Towne graduated from Mansfield University in 2008. She is currently working on her Masters in Educational Leadership at Western New Mexico University on a grant. As she is teaching here, she also is taking advantage of the opportunity to do her apprenticeship and is involved in the student leadership program here at BASH.

Mrs. Eshbach is mentoring her as she transitions in to Boyertown. “Mrs. Eshbach is amazing! She’s always able to answer my questions. She has helped me so much since I started here. I couldn’t have asked for such a great mentor. I can’t thank her enough for all the help she has given me.”

Mrs. Towne spends the majority of her time teaching and taking classes, but she also is active in her church and spends time with her husband. One of her main goals for the current school year is to get more in touch with the school community.

“I’m really excited to be here, and extremely grateful for the opportunity,” she said. “I have really good students, and it’s just a great opportunity to be able to teach here!”