(February 28, 2013) — Within the last seven weeks, there’s been a new addition to the Davis classroom: Elle Finlay. Finlay, a Canadian took responsibility for discussions of Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front , not to mention developing close student-teacher bonds with many sophomores. “Ms.

Finlay really tries to make sure we’re all learning,” said sophomore Lulua Shamin. “She gives us summaries and she sums up the book with us.” Finlay lives in Canada but attends Niagara University in New York.

She lives an hour and a half and goes to school two days a week. Even though she lives in Canada, she is able to teach in either Canada or New York. Finlay has taught in schools in Haiti, Jamaica, Canada and the United States, with Clark being her first high school. So why the Davis’ class?

“They have a reputation of being extremely thorough teachers so I think they were trying to give me the best of the best,” Finlay said. “Ms. Finlay was great mostly because she gave us a wide range of assignments that we wouldn’t have otherwise done,” said another sophomore Varty Yahjian.

One of these assignments was to listen a song, “I Love It” by Icona Pop, and figure out the theme and subject of the song. Now that her student teaching here at Clark is done, Finlay is going to Roosevelt Middle School as her next challenge. After her seven weeks at Roosevelt, she is going back to New York.