Ms. Liisa Peterson, the Green Team science teacher, has been sharing her knowledge with kids from all over the place for seventeen years. She has been teaching at Middlesex for four years. When she was growing up, her favorite subject was English, but when she was in high school she really got into math and science. In other words, she found her true calling.

Ms. Peterson’s favorite part about teaching eighth graders is the fact that she can talk to them like adults but they’re still kind of kid-like and say whatever is on their minds. She also loves that the fact that they’re still interested in getting to know their teachers and that their sense of humor is so great. As for her students on the Green Team, Ms. Peterson says they’re an awesome bunch of kids.

If she hadn’t found her true calling in high school, Ms. Peterson would be a writer; she already does some writing on the side, mostly short stories. But her dream job would have been to be a desert guy. That is to say, someone who observes hawks and eagles in the desert.

Many of Ms. Peterson’s past and present students are quick to tell about her amazing stories. When asked to share her favorite one, she had a really hard time choosing. She decided on a story from her early childhood.

When she was in kindergarten, Ms. Peterson was exposed to a different language at school, as she spoke Estonian with her family at home. One day, she asked the teacher when they were going home and the teacher responded with “soon”. But she did not know what time “soon” was so Ms. Peterson, being the inquisitive person she is, asked what time soon was. Her teacher’s response was “sometime around one thirty”. From then on, Ms. Peterson firmly believed that every time of day had an

“–oon” word for it, a.k.a. noon, etc.

As many of you know, Ms. Peterson works very closely with Miss Orkins on the yearbook. Her favorite thing about that, aside from the fact that Miss Orkins is “the absolute best”, is that they are actually friends and can joke and rely on each other. She also added that they compliment each other very well.

If Ms. Peterson could be any animal, she would be a hawk or an eagle because, in her words, “they know who they are, and they don’t care what anybody thinks of them. They just sit there and do their thing, and if you bother them they just fly away. Or mess you up.”

Palmer’s Turkey Dim Sum, Lord of the Rings , and comfy socks. That’s what Ms. Peterson would bring with her to space. Wow.

On a completely unrelated note, we asked Ms. Peterson how she felt about NBC’s comedy The Office . She responded with, “Oh, great show. Great writing. I like that they don’t have a laugh track. And it’s like a documentary. Also all my friends watch it so if someone misses it we can just shun them.” Thank you, Ms. Peterson.