Three years ago, Charlene Garklavs joined the Townsend Harris High School faculty as a teacher in the Instructional Support Services department. This fall, Ms. Garklavs moved from the ISS department to take a position in the English department. She will be teaching the senior humanities seminar, Writing Process, and a dual-enrollment philosophy elective through St. John’s University.

“I’m really excited, especially about the [senior] humanities class,” Ms. Garklavs said. “I feel like there’s a lot of opportunity there for not just good discussions but also other sorts of activities mostly because we’re doing so many kinds of texts, ancient literature, philosophy.”

Before becoming an English teacher at THHS, she worked at the Academy of American Studies. She obtained her Master in Arts in theology from St. Vladimir’s Seminary and a Master’s in education from Queens College. 

Ms. Garklavs said she loves to do hands-on projects and take creative approaches to lessons. “I love what I do and I love reading lessons and materials that I think are interesting and engaging,” she said. She also described the school administration as valuing “teacher interests,” and said, “there is more freedom here for teachers to create their own curriculum.”

She has done just that through her philosophy elective, where she has introduced a new course to the THHS curriculum, and in the process, ended up launching a new college partnership.

“One thing I want to do in philosophy class is experimental learning,” she said. “I want to have students try to live like an existentialist for three days. [They will try] to record a journal and take a video of themselves [to] think about how it impacts [their] lives.” 

Ari Ebens, a student of Mrs. Garklavs’ freshman English class, said he likes how she “includes a lot of her philosophy when teaching her lessons.” 

Mr. Sweeney, who played a role in the hiring of Mrs. Garklavs said, “We [already] knew that Ms. Garklavs was an excellent teacher in the ISS department. Last year, she helped us teach a section of the seminar when we needed her, and she did spectacularly. So when a full time position opened up, we knew she would be a really strong candidate for it.”

He also discussed her role in giving THHS students access to classes from St. Johns, saying, “she’s actually the person who first put us in contact with SJU, which is why we’re able to run the senior college program this year.”

Mr. Sweeney said he looks forward to seeing what else she will bring to the school, saying, “She’s going to be instrumental in having us rethink how we offer courses.”

Ms. Garklavs said she is up to the task: “I have a lot of ideas of things I want to try to do, and I’m really excited.”