“It became real, so then everybody encouraged

me to do what I wanted to do.” — Melissa Pearlman

on her family supporting her to pursue

her dream of being a teacher.

    Melissa Pearlman has joined the math department at Watertown High School. Although this is her first year at WHS, this is not her first year teaching. She used to teach at a boarding school in Western Massachusetts.

    Pearlman is from New York, and grew up in the suburbs with her two sisters, one older and one younger. She attended Barnard College, the women’s college of Columbia University, where she studied applied math.

    Believe it or not, math was not here intended major! It was physics. But thanks to her growing interest in math over her years at college, she changed gears (and majors) and became a math teacher.  

    What was it that made her choose WHS? Pearlman said she looked into the clubs that WHS offers and said “it looked like the coolest list.” So she said, “It must be the coolest group of kids who are doing really awesome things.”

   She wanted to be with the cool kids and now she is.

   Pearlman teaches Algebra I (ninth and 10th grade), Advanced Algebra (11th and 12th grade), and Precalculus (11th and 12th grade).

    She said her goal for her first year here is to understand how WHS works, but she would like to join or be in charge of a club. Preferably gardening.

    You have to remember that Ms. Pearlman is not just a teacher. She is a human. She does not just live at WHS! In her spare time, she plays the French horn (started in sixth grade), and likes to be outside as much as possible. She is also a skier and a ski instructor, which she’s been doing for 10 years. She travels up to Vermont when there is snow and skis as much as she can.

    WHS welcomes Melissa Pearlman to Watertown High and hopes she stays for years to come.

–Oct. 8, 2016–