Lorraine Goldstein, physical education

Lorraine Goldstein, a P.E. and health teacher new to WJ this year, decided to go into education in order to help kids stay healthy. A Baltimore native, and a teacher in Montgomery County for over 10 years, Goldstein wasn’t always interested in teaching.

“I wanted to be a nurse,” said Goldstein. “When I was in high school I volunteered in the pediatric ward of a hospital…[but it was difficult to see] kids that were terminally ill.”

As a result, Goldstein began coaching a cheerleading camp and changed her major from nursing to physical education at the University of Maryland-College Park.

Goldstein enjoys all of the units that she teaches in health, particularly drug prevention and family life & human sexuality. In P.E., she enjoys teaching dance, a class she previously taught at Northwest in Gaithersburg and hopes to teach at WJ in the future.

Other than teaching, Goldstein enjoys running, cooking, taking care of her two boys, watching movies and reading. She recently ran the Army 10 Miler this past October, and plans to run another race around Thanksgiving.

In the coming year, Goldstein is looking forward to making new connections with students, getting involved with activities and volunteering at her sons’ elementary school.

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Tim Lowe, physical education

Tim Lowe, a graduate of Montgomery County Public Schools, is one of WJ’s new teachers.  Lowe teaches a variety of classes including basketball, adaptive P.E. and health.  Though new to WJ, he has three years of experience teaching P.E. and health at Watkins Mill High School.  In addition to teaching, Lowe also has experience coaching, as he is currently the head coach of the Churchill High School wrestling team.

Lowe said he feels at home at WJ.

“Staff and students have been very welcoming since I have been here,” he said.  Additionally, Lowe sponsors the Badminton Club, which has been a great way for him to build relationships with the students.

Outside of school he enjoys attending both football and soccer games.  Lowe also described himself as an outdoorsman.  He enjoys camping, hiking, fishing, but also enjoys the restaurants around D.C.  Lowe has enjoyed his first quarter at WJ and looks forward to the rest of the year.

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Anne Sexton, math

Anne Sexton, a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, is a new math teacher at WJ this fall.

Sexton previously taught at Rosa Parks MS and Tilden MS, in all levels of math up to Algebra 2 excluding Geometry.

After an interview for the position, Sexton got a call from Principal Jennifer Baker in mid-June, who told her that she had the opportunity to teach at WJ as a math teacher. She was very excited and nervous at the same time.

Sexton feels that teaching should be about both fun and learning. She uses learning games like Jeopardy and Trashketball to help her students understand concepts while having fun. Sexton has loved her experience at WJ so far and she “never wants to leave.” She has bonded well with her students and enjoys the environment in the classrooms.

During her off-time, Sexton has remedies she uses to de-stress from the strain of teaching.

“I run, bike and take spin class,” said Sexton. “I like to be active. [I also] love listening to music.”

Sports are a big part of Sexton’s life. She has coached the girls soccer team at Tilden, and enjoys all other sports including softball, baseball, skiing and, most of all, football. Sexton adds that she loves to read, but seldom gets the opportunity. However, she never fails to read her New York Times news alerts.

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Ryan Martinez, foreign language

If you are in the language hallway and you pass by a teacher rapping in French, you may have stumbled across the new French teacher Ryan Martinez.

Prior to teaching at WJ, Martinez taught at B-CC High School. Martinez has been at WJ less than a year and already loves the school community.

“It’s a good place to be new in,” he said.

Martinez added that the students are down to Earth and he has formed a personal connection with his students. He has been teaching for five years, four of which were in the United States and one in France. Apart from France, Martinez has been to over 30 countries, including Cuba and Turkey.

When Martinez is not in the classroom teaching, he is either at home with his guinea pig or painting, making music or traveling. He currently has two albums on iTunes. Additionally, he is constructing a ceiling tile project for the school, in which he is painting ceiling tiles and hanging them in every classroom. He hopes to accomplish this by winter break.

Martinez’s philosophy is, above all, to get people interested in what they are learning.

“My job is to get people to understand what we are talking about and to get them motivated about what we are learning,” said Martinez.

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Naomi Gelfand, media center

The new media center specialist, Naomi Gelfand, has big plans for developing the WJ library. According to Gelfand, these plans include buying new reading material, including audio books, in order to make the library a place students want to be.

Gelfand started her career at Cannon Road ES and spent five years working there. After Cannon Road she moved on to the brand-new Lakelands MS, spending six years at the school.

Gelfand’s decision to become a media specialist was based on her love of books. She also wanted to teach but says that she wasn’t quite sure she wanted to work with only one class. This reasoning factored into her decision to work in the WJ library.

Gelfand loves her ability to see such a wide variety of students daily and a chance to put her own stamp on the media center.

A reader herself, Gelfand’s favorite authors consists of Neil Shushterman, Gabrielle Zevin and Scott Westerfeld.