By Gracie Maurer
New schools can be scary.
Meeting new people and the freshness of a new building can be overwhelming.
Especially when you’re a new teacher.
Three new teachers joined Delta High School at the start of the second semester.
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Miss Emily Lodge (shown above hiking in Colorado) is the new biology teacher. She grew up in Peru, Ind., and went to Maconaquah High School.
She played the trumpet as well as ran track and swam. She is now Delta Middle School’s swim coach.
Miss Lodge has only worked in education. Before she came to Delta she worked at Northside Middle School.
She joked that she acts like a grandma.
“I like to read and lay in my hammock,” she said. “And go on runs, which grandmas don’t do that.”
As well as running, this “grandma” likes to hike as well. But she has an interesting reason why she likes to hike.
“I like it because I get to eat a lot of food,” she said.
Her favorite place to hike is Indian Peak in Colorado. The tallest mountain she hiked is also in Colorado, Mount Elbert.
She likes to hike alone and enjoy the view but sometimes she’s in the sky with her friends. Miss Lodge tries to go hiking whenever she gets the chance.
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Mrs. Brigitte Jackson is a new English teacher. She grew up near Muncie and went to Cowan High School.
She was involved in the band and played the saxophone.
Mrs. Jackson taught at Muncie Central High School, but had been on a break from teaching.
“I’ve been staying home with my kids for around three years,” she said.
She has three children. Adam is five years old, Violet is two and Joan is 3 months old.
She enjoys swimming on the lake as well as crocheting. But these are not the only things she does.
“I teach a martial arts class at Cornerstone,” she said.
She teaches a class called Little Ninjas for kids. Her son Adam also attends Little Ninjas.
She started teaching this class in January.
Not only does she teach martial arts, she also does it. She started in middle school and is now a black belt in taijutsu.
“My brother had started doing it … .and I just did it with him,” she said.
Taijutsu is a Japanese martial art. It’s the style ninjas learn.
She got her black belt in 2015-2016 when she was in college.
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Mrs. Alison Jackson is a new English teacher, but she isn’t new to Delta.
“I’ve worked in the office for the last four years so I knew (about the English opening) when it came available,” she said. “I just decided it might be something that I’m interested in.”
Her favorite subject in high school was English. She also loved to read in high school.
Mrs. Jackson lived in Kokomo, Ind., until she came to Muncie to attend Ball State University.
She was involved in a lot during high school including honor society, student council and swimming.
Not only did Mis. Jackson work in the office, she’s also co-head coach of the swim teams at Delta.
“I have loved swimming since I started swimming when I was 4 years old,” Mrs. Jackson said. “And I like being able to pass that love on to the kids.”
She also teaches for the Cardinal Swim Club.
Before coming to Delta, Mis. Jackson worked at Star Bank, but she wasn’t just a regular employee.
“A lot of people don’t know that I was a branch manager of a bank for 12 years,” she said.
