This feature will highlight our new staff members this year. Welcome aboard!
Ms. Warren and Ms. Ng, two of our new math teachers this year
Ms. Warren
Math teacher : 7th grade, and Algebra II/ Trigonometry
While studying at CUNY Queens for my Master's in Literacy, I enrolled in a practicum course that was held at East-West. During the semester, I worked with students to develop their skills in reading and writing. Through this, I was able to get to know the students and also a feel for the school. It seemed that the students were excited to learn and wanted to put in the extra time to improve their grades. The drive and passion the students had for excelling in academics made me want to be a part of the East-West team. Now, knowing the school's four pillars: honor, excellence, curiosity, and celebration, makes me confident in my decision to have joined East-West.
I love to cook and play sports, especially lacrosse.
Outside of the United States, I have traveled to Croatia, Italy, and New Zealand. I always look forward to my next opportunity to explore new places, people, and cultures.
I really love the sense of community and all the acts of kindness I see everyday at East-West. It makes me happy to be a part of a group that is helpful and sweet.
Ms. Ng
Math & Special Education Teacher: Geometry, ELA, Pre-Calculus, and Methods of Mathematical Thinking
I am a mathematics and special education teacher here at East-West. I co-teach Geometry with Mr. Deihl and 6th grade ELA with Ms. Mandel. I’m also teaching Pre-Calculus and had the pleasure of starting Methods of Mathematical Thinking, a new middle school course linking problem solving, logic, and critical thinking in math.
There are many reasons why I joined East-West, but my main motivation was because I was attracted to its goal of educating students with a globalizing world in mind. At East-West, students are exposed to the idea that they are world citizens, and therefore embrace diversity and promote cooperation and compassion among all individuals.
Having been born in Puerto Rico, I am fluent in Spanish. My father lived there until I was nine, so I went back every summer and was able to learn the language at an early age. I continued with the language from middle school to college, and studied in Madrid for a summer.
Both my parents emigrated from China, so I grew up speaking Cantonese with them. I was always interested in other cultures, and therefore became an anthropology and international relations major in college. During that time, I studied abroad and interned in New Zealand for half a year. I think that it is incredibly important that all students take the opportunity to travel to learn as much about the world as possible.
I love the students that I’ve gotten to know so far at East-West. Each student is so unique and brings so many different ideas and strengths into the classroom. I am also so incredibly impressed by some of my students’ intrinsic motivation, desire to learn, and aspiration to do well.
Mr. Krummel as a stage performer
Mr. Krummel
Drama Teacher
A great American stage director once noticed that Democracy and Drama were invented during the same decade back in Ancient Greece. And it occurred to him that this was no accident, that both require empathy, an effort to imagine and understand what it's like to walk a mile or three in another person's shoes. Many child-psychologists and students of student-learning believe that young people must learn empathy. It is believed, furthermore, that key to the education of the whole child is an exposure to stories and to guided play. Drama and Theatre Arts are a vital piece of the puzzle that makes up that picture.
I was a stage actor for over twenty years, playing some of Shakespeare's greatest parts, and roles in a whole host of other great plays, all around the country. A few years ago, I decided it was time to share the passion I had long had for the theatre and its drama, and to do so as a public school teacher.
I was a child in and around Beirut, Lebanon and Geneva, Switzerland, and still feel like I am who I am because of those multi-hued international influences and the values instilled in me by my parents and teachers. A feeling that The East-West School embodies and shares some of those values and hopes and dreams played a big part in my decision to come here. I came to East-West during the Fall of 2011 after three years teaching in Hunt’s Point, The Bronx … and my feet have yet to hit the ground. And that’s as it should be. Young people embody the wider world's dreams for a happier future. It is my fervent hope that I may be able to contribute in some small and happy way to the future of the young people of Flushing and beyond.