Several new teachers have joined the faculty this year, representing departments such as math, chemistry, social studies, and language arts. Joining this community is a big deal as they are now a part of Eaton’s culture and get to know what the school is all about. Although the community knows of these teachers, they don’t know who they are.
Language arts teacher, Liam Duncan, works with sophomores, and juniors, teaching World Literature and American Literature, but he has also taken on a new freshman ICAP. “It’s definitely very interesting seeing them transition from being middle schoolers to high schoolers throughout the year,” he said. Duncan is excited to be working with the staff at Eaton and respects them in their small but tight-knit group. He’s been teaching for 11 years at Mead, Greeley, and Valley and has wanted to teach at Eaton ever since he was a student teacher at Eaton while he was getting his degree at CSU. However, there hadn’t been an opening until recently. He spent his time getting his undergraduate degree at Wright State University in Ohio, where he grew up, and then got his graduate degree in teaching from CSU.
Duncan’s hobbies include reading, weightlifting, and playing music. He’s been dabbling in genres such as fantasy and Greek mythology due to the staff’s encouragement. After taking a History of Rock and Roll class, Duncan and his friends became immediately interested in creating a metal band together. Duncan said, “I’ve been playing in bands since I was a freshman in high school, but this particular one I started my second year of teaching, and the other I joined over the summer.” As his bands have music on platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube, their names remain anonymous. However, Duncan has played the electric guitar since he was 10 years old and continues to primarily do so in these bands, where he creates little melodies of songs.
The new social studies teacher, Shane Barkley, teaches Edgenuity and World Geography this semester and History of Rock and Roll next semester. He enjoys flyfishing and music, such as playing the trumpet. Barkley has played the trumpet since third grade due to the desire to be in the same activities as his brother, who played violin at the time. He played a multitude of instruments, trying to find out which one would best suit him. Barkley even thought it was ridiculous at times, but found himself gravitating towards the trumpet.
Regarding his hopes for this year, Barkley said, “I’m excited to meet more students and progress as a teacher and get into Eaton’s community.” Compared to growing up in Denver, a small town is something he looks forward to getting to know.
Molly Martinez is the new math teacher and is also excited to teach geometry for the first time. She has normally taught algebra, and normally it would be to middle schoolers. At first, while Martinez was in high school, she really wanted to be a veterinarian; however, she decided while in college that teaching was the path she wanted to take. “I had some teachers that weren’t very good, and I wanted to make it better for some kids to have somebody to help them. I believe in actually presenting information before students have to figure out anything on their own because it really frustrated me when I was a student,” Martinez said.
Outside of school, Martinez loves connecting with nature as well as nurturing her mind. She enjoys gardening and planting flowers out in her front yard, especially in the spring. Martinez loves to read fantasy novels as well.
Briana Sirios is the new chemistry teacher, taking over for Stephanie Kirchhoff. Jaryn Guerra led Sirios to teach in Eaton as she encouraged her to coach Cross Country in 2020 and inquired with her about the job opening. Sirios said, “There have been times in my teaching career where I felt a little burnt out or, maybe it wasn’t my calling anymore, but coming to Eaton has reinvigorated me in that sense. The atmosphere is one that I enjoy, and I’m willing to push through the hard days to continue to be around.” She loves that science is a more challenging subject and appreciates the gratification it serves her students and herself.
Sirios loves being in nature, whether it’s hiking, fishing, snowmobiling, or camping. Although having three kids makes it difficult at times for her, she loves being active and enjoying the outdoors with them as much as possible. Volleyball, football, and basketball are all connected to her as well. Sirios used to play volleyball in high school and enjoys watching the sport, as well as football, since her dad coached it. “I learned a lot about football from him, and it makes me nostalgic of spending time with him,” Sirios said.
The exciting new Spanish teacher, Sharon Darkwah, didn’t always want to be a teacher. While living in Ghana, she hoped to be in construction or to be an architect; however, she didn’t meet the necessary requirements on the entrance exam for high school. That doesn’t mean that she regrets being a teacher though, she realizes that in doing so she wouldn’t be able to move around as much and she thinks that teaching was overall the best fit for her. So, her path guided her to focus on linguistics in college to learn Spanish and French. Darkwah describes herself as a “wandering soul” as she has always been interested in traveling to different countries and learning new languages, while her family wanted to stay put. In Ghana, it is very uncommon for people to be monolingual, most know at least two different languages. She has three first languages that she grew up knowing, which include Tree, Fanti, and English, and then she began to learn French and Spanish. “It’s just like how the computer has bits and zero bits and zero bitten by zeros and ones. I think I just have zeros and ones in my brain, so if you tell me something in Spanish, I just process it, or if you tell me something in English, I’ll just process it. I don’t need to switch to that language to translate,” Darkwah explains. She’s always trying to learn as much as possible; however, she is working on Duolingo constantly to master new languages such as Portuguese, Russian, German, Japanese, and Korean. Darkwah works consistently in trying to gain her P.h.D. in second language acquisition or curriculum development and strives to learn as much as possible in the field. She believes that she should have more opportunities to teach harder Spanish classes such as Native Language or Spanish Four. Darkwah is very ambitious to get as much experience for her career and strives to be the best.
Darkwah explains that she wants to have many children and travel as much as possible with them in her future, but for now, she is happy and grateful to have her daughter, Bella, by her side. “It’s a divine job, caring for kids, and it’s not as easy as people may think and I’m glad I can work and have somebody take care of her,” Darkwah said. Family is very important to her, and she is constantly calling her sisters and mother, who are still living in Ghana. She hopes that her daughter will eventually be able to meet them in person and wants her to experience the education and culture in Ghana while she’s in high school. However, she still wants to settle in America and eventually retire once she has mastered her career so that she can travel.
Overall, the new teachers that have been added to the faculty are very excited to be at Eaton. They look forward to getting to know everyone and being a part of the community.
Tonya Crilly is very excited to be the new administrative assistant. She joined Eaton’s faculty since her kids and her family have been a part of the district for her kids’ whole lives. “I enjoy getting to interact with students and just seeing a bunch of different faces and just being a part of an upbeat atmosphere,” Crilly said. On the weekends, she loves crafting and spending time outside with her family. Crilly believes that throughout this year she will be focusing on putting faces and names together so she can truly get to know everyone.
