BRATTLEBORO — A high school freshman will see plenty of familiar faces due to her involvement on the soccer team.
Another person that Amelia Glickman (who went to Dummerston School last year) will know at Brattleboro Union High School is her father, Henry Zacchini. This marks his second year teaching social studies there.
"I'm excited to meet the new students. That's the fun thing about being a school teacher," Zacchini said. "It's a fresh start."
The incoming freshmen class, which starts on Wednesday, has a "reputation as a batch of strong students," said Zacchini, who spent part of the summer reading and preparing content for the year. His family lived in Mexico and England when Glickman was in grades three through seven. But they came back to their Dummerston home in the summers.
Zacchini was teaching in both countries after completing a masters degree program that saw him teaching at the Brattleboro high school for one year. Glickman had gone to Dummerston from kindergarten to second grade. She first picked up soccer last year in Dummerston, then participated in a spring soccer program where she met girls from Brattleboro Area Middle School.
BUHS is expected to give Glickman the opportunity to meet more friends.
"Because Dummerston is a very small school," she said. "So I have more social options and activities."
At last week's soccer team tryouts, she counted 34 girls hoping to make the cut.
This year is proving to be a much easier transition for Zacchini than last year, when he was new again to the high school. He had taught in Guadalajara, a city in western Mexico, for three years. His wife received her teaching certificate there and is now a student-support teacher at Academy School in West Brattleboro.
Previously, the family lived in London, England. They always knew they were coming back to Windham County, said Zacchini.
"It's nice. I like it," he said of the Brattleboro school. "I will teach a lot of (Glickman's) friends but not her."
Glickman said she prefers social studies out of all the core subjects. But English class is a favorite, too
Spanish will be new to her in one sense. Instruction of the language was not available to her in Dummerston. Having lived abroad gives her a leg up on the course, though.
"Since we lived in Mexico, I get to take a more advanced class, which is nice because I want to keep that up," said Glickman.
In terms of activities, she said she is unsure of what will follow soccer. She still has time to think about it.
The schools in the other countries had "really big buildings," Glickman told the Reformer.
"They're not quite as big as this," she said of BUHS. "But I think I'm already getting used to it."
Call Chris Mays at 802-254-2311, ext. 273.
