After a semester of maternity leave, Economics/AP Government and Psychology teacher Hana Chen has returned to the classroom. After a turbulent first semester with two substitutes for her classes, Chen is eager to help her students get up to speed with the curriculum in preparation for the upcoming AP test; her classes are even more relieved to have their teacher back.

“We had a hard time getting used to the substitutes’ teaching style,” senior Cayla Zelanis said. “The substitutes veered off topic quite often and we all had a harder time adjusting.”

On her first day back from winter break on Jan. 4, Chen asked her students to air out all of their grievances from the past semester. After 10 minutes of venting out their frustrations, Chen’s students were thankful to have their real teacher back.

“Now that I’ve returned to the job I love, it’s time to reel my students back in,” Chen said. “My AP Government students are currently being brought up to speed to the other Government classes.”

The first two Government units were taught at the end of the previous semester after the Economics portion finished, but many students shared with Chen that they were not yet comfortable with the introductory material. Chen is reteaching the first two units before moving on to the third, and has been lecturing for the majority of the month of January. She promised her classes they would be completely caught up with Government teacher Kirk Abe’s class by the end of January.

“I like to make my classes interesting and enjoyable with activities, short clips and projects,” Chen said. “However, I told my kids early on that the most important task at hand is making sure they are comfortable with the first two units before we dive into the rest of the semester.”

“I think these next few months will be a lot better in terms of communication and relationship with our teacher,” Zelanis said. “I’m excited to get to know [Chen].”