What do a yoga instructor, a computer science professor, and an adult educator have in common? Not much, but as it happens, they are now all teachers at Piedmont. This year’s eclectic band of new teachers, Tamatha Hauskens, Dr. Rajendra Shrivastava, Katie Terhar, Shimyun Cotter, and Amy Dunn-Ruiz, includes a diversity of different personalities and professional backgrounds.

Hauskens, who has taught English at three different schools in the past five years, almost retired from teaching to focus on her second job as a yoga and fitness instructor. She certainly looks the part, with her tall, lean frame and her blonde pixie-cut hair.

But when one of her tenth grade students, Principal Brent Daniels’s daughter, suggested taking a part-time job at Piedmont, she did not want to miss out on the opportunity.

“She said if I got it she would take me to Fentons, and get me a sundae, so how could I refuse, right?” Hauskens said. “I applied for the job thinking that it would be a really great balance to have part time work as a high school English teacher part-time work in fitness and yoga.”

As an English teacher, she hopes to develop and cultivate relationships with the rest of the faculty, and get to know and enjoy her students. She carries on her energy from the yoga studio straight into the classroom.

“I like my class to be really interactive and fun because I find that when it’s engaging, it helps me stay more present, and the kids to stay more present as well,” Hauskens said.

All of her previous schools, Hauskens said, were very different institutions. Comparing Piedmont to her most recent school, Berkeley High, which had over 3000 students, Hauskens said “the size and the scale of school is so much different.” She describes the students at Piedmont as “intellectually curious and really kind.”

“Walking out into the halls here feels very calm; Berkeley High feels kind of like Lord of the Flies,” Hauskens said. “The connection to your colleagues is a lot stronger here, and connections to administration seems stronger than administration at Berkeley High.”

Shrivastava, a former computer science professor and the new computer science teacher, is likewise impressed by the campus environment. He has taught at many schools, including Orion Academy, a school for students with Asperger’s Syndrome and other learning disorders.

“The students are good, the resources are nice,” Shrivastava said, with a firm, accented voice and broad gesticulation. ‘This could be fun, let’s put it that way.”

And having fun is what he intends to do.

“This is semi-retirement for me, so I’m just going to take things easy,” Shrivastava said. “I really don’t have aspirations for promotions or going up the administrative rank. Give me good students, good timing, take me away from the commute hassles, I’m happy.”

Katie Terhar, who had previously taught at Piedmont High for an eight year stretch from 2000-2007, has returned this year to teach history. Only she never actually stopped teaching, nor did she ever stop teaching at Piedmont. In her time away, she taught at the Piedmont adult education program.

Terhar left because her children were young, but now that they are school-age, she is able to teach during the day while her kids are at school.

A lot has changed in her seven year hiatus, Terhar said, but much has remained the same.

“The students are still wonderful to teach, the faculty’s very supportive, and it’s a good community to be in,” Terhar said.