This year, social studies teacher Tressa Macaluso began working at North. This is her second year working as a teacher after earning her degree.
Macaluso teaches contemporary world issues and world history and geography to freshmen.
“I really like working with freshmen because I think it’s really important to not only help them learn whatever content and skills we’re teaching in class, but guide them into that transition to high school,” said Macaluso.
“I knew since middle school that I wanted to go into education,” said Macaluso. “For a while I wanted to become an English teacher because I was super into reading, but I went into high school and took all of the different social studies courses my school offered and had a handful of super awesome social studies teachers.”
After graduating from Illinois State University, Macaluso taught at Larkin and Elgin High School in District U-46. After a year in U-46, she moved to North.
Outside of school, Macaluso loves to kayak and is an avid reader.
“One of my brothers randomly bought a kayak one day and just started going kayaking and I was like ‘that sounds cool,’” said Macaluso. “So I went out, bought a kayak, tossed it in the Fox River, and I like it. It’s very peaceful.”
Macaluso especially enjoys books about history, with her favorite recent read being Lesley M.M. Blume’s “Fallout,” a book about the cover-up of the effects of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“Anything 1920s to 1960s is kind of my sweet spot for U.S. history,” said Macaluso. “There’s so many different things going on, whether you’re looking at it from a global scale or just zooming in on certain social things going on in just the United States.”
Macaluso has enjoyed her time at North so far and has felt welcomed by students and staff.
“I’m really happy to be at North and I’m looking forward to the whole school year,” said Macaluso.
