Ms. Donna MacTavish has been teaching for 32 years, including 4 years as an ESL [English as a second language] teacher. She has also been a reading specialist, a Title 1 teacher, a reading coach, a middle school literacy teacher, and an ELE teacher at NHS.

An ELE teacher is a teacher who teaches English to students whose first language is not English, and is needed more than ever as the NHS’s student population becomes more diverse. 

According to Lisa Bourgeois, ELE Director, “From SY 19-20 to SY 23-24, the ML population has more than doubled from 4.4% to 9.6%.” 

MacTavish finds much to love about her job. According to Donna MacTavish, her colleagues and her students teach her to be a better person.

“My students and colleagues that I work with, my students are just amazing. I learn so much from them every day, they teach me how to be a better person,” she said.

However, there are some challenges to being an ELE teacher. Ms. MacTavish goes on to explain some of the challenges she faces as an ELE teacher.

“The challenges are that I only speak English and I have students that speak many languages and the responsibilities of my job is just sometimes hard to teach 9 through 12 and all different levels of English language learners and just trying to meet their needs and make sure that they are learning to the best of their ability,” she said.

On the other hand, MacTavish says that there are some benefits to being an ELE teacher.

“I love the students that I work with. They are some of the best people in the world, and they teach me so much every day, from resilience to dedication to just being good humans,” she said.