Clayton’s Fresh Faculty

Claire Miller first discovered her love for teaching through plastic tote boxes. By combining a spark of creativity with keen ingenuity, Miller and her childhood best friend flipped tote boxes upside down to create makeshift desks, transforming a dull storage item into the foundation of a classroom. Equipped with a full-size whiteboard, the duo became versed in the ways of teaching, and Miller cites...

“Take care of yourself, take care of each other, take care of this place.” This is how Buddy Sodemann describes his teaching philosophy. A former basketball player and coach, Sodemann will be bringing his experience in the sport and in teaching to CHS this fall. Sodemann’s career as a basketball player and coach has taken him all around the world, including destinations like San Marino...

“My mother says I was singing before I was speaking in full sentences. The first song that I ever sang was Silent Night. I was 18-months -old when I first started singing, so I was able to hear a tune and might not have the exact words correctly but I could sing the tune,” new Clayton High School music teacher Joseph Schoen said. Music has always been an important aspect of Schoen’s life....

“I have always loved to read and write. The English language is so rich and nuanced. I love discovering new worlds and possibilities through literature,” incoming CHS English teacher Raychelle Martin said. A St. Louis native, Martin is transferring to the Clayton English Department after 14 years in the Ferguson-Florissant District. “Clayton has the diversity, autonomy and support I was...

“Part of the interview process was coming in and teaching, and I remember coming to this school and walking through the halls. The vibe of the school was a lot different. I felt like this place was a place of learning, and that people here for the most part are here to learn,” new CHS English teacher Dana Augustine said. Augustine had been teaching for six years in San Diego and Florissant,...

Many people share a common belief, often stemming from horror stories of trigonometry that bring them to tears, that math is reserved for textbooks, classes and the minds of “math people” only. Michelle Kondracki is not one of them. Kondracki has been a math teacher for four years, and her teaching philosophy revolves around the idea that the world is not split into “math people” and “not-math...

“One time I was just sitting there teaching, and I see Dorsey running. He’s running and there is another teacher chasing him, because they were the last two left,” Jennifer Swift, a math teacher at CHS, said of a memorable game of Assassin, a Lindbergh High School tradition in which members of the math department would attempt to assassinate other teachers by placing a sticker on them. During...

The ability to interpret contemporary issues within the context of history is a powerful asset, and new CHS history teacher La Shauna Aningo seeks to help students confront present-day issues with a strong education rooted in history. “I want to create an environment where students can examine different perspectives and topics in history while making connections to current events,” Aningo said....

Passionate. Caring. Fun-loving. These are three words incoming history teacher Amy Doyle would use to describe herself. After spending 19 years in the Rockwood School District, 17 of which were spent at Marquette High School, Doyle is set to teach US and World History to rising ninth and tenth graders. While reputation contributed to her interest in CHS, size and involvement in social justice,...

In middle school, incoming CHS history teacher Danielle DuHadway wasn’t a great student. She disliked reading and felt like her writing didn’t measure up to that of her peers. Classes seemed difficult, English was uninteresting and school just hadn’t clicked for her. That is, until she took World History in her freshman year of high school. “It wasn’t until [that time in my life] that...

“I love learning myself. And I thought there was no better way than to do something that literally causes you to learn something new every day,” said Bradford Buck, new CHS science teacher. “I was in a career working for a technology company,” Buck said. “And I worked in undergraduate or graduate research. In a cancer biology lab, a lot of [my work] was repetitive. With teaching, you might...