Emily Milon, AP Seminar and English Language Development (ELD) teacher, announced plans to leave the school and continue her career elsewhere. She has been teaching at the school for 21 years, but in the past four years, has only taught part time.
Teaching three periods this year, her reason for working part time is because she struggles with using her voice. Despite teaching only three periods, her vocal nodules could not handle daily shouting.
“My vocal nodules are definitely a big deal, because almost every day, I have a sore throat, and then sometimes during the breaks, I’ll do vocal rest and not do what I want to do,” Milon said.“Having a job where I’m speaking all the time, it really makes my voice sore and exasperates them,” she continued.
Because of this issue, she works part time at the school and also at her husband’s law firm Workers’ Rights Legal Group. At the firm, she’s the social media editor and manager, helping to promote their service online.
To promote, she uses marketing and designing skills. The creativity in her designs for the law firm is similar to when she creates slides for her lessons.
“Being creative with lesson plans, or doing Canva slides that can just translate into doing Canva post on LinkedIn. So all of the skills that I’ve learned have really kind of transferred there. So, you know, I think it’s exciting,” Milon said.
Even though she likes both jobs equally, she could only manage one.
“I’ve just been balancing, working two jobs, and it’s been really stressful, so I had to kind of decide, okay, which one am I going to choose?” Milon said.
Ultimately, she decided on choosing to work at the law firm due to various reasons.
First, her videos for the law firm helped attract customers for her husband and the firm.
“I started to film TikToks with them to get more social media attraction, and it just took off, and they started just getting calls every week, and consultation calls for clients, and they signed up nine clients that came from my TikTok,” Milon said.
Second, as a teacher she was unable to reach the required amount of Social Security credits.
“They changed the law where teachers could get social security and so I double checked my social security credits, and I only had 19, and you need 40 to get social security,” Milon said.
Overall, leaving the school felt like the best decision for her.
As she leaves, her impact has created many bonds within the classroom.
Her ELD students have learned and developed beyond their limits because of her teaching. When English is not someone’s first language, it makes it difficult to fit in amongst peers and even communicate with teachers. However, Milon makes it easy for students through her guidance, according to freshman Melissa Vieyra.
“She really helped me write better, speak better, and read better. It really made me do better on English class, especially because I see myself as a really shy person,” Vieyra said.
In an email to staff from Principal Charles Park, he stated that “Beyond her professional contributions, Emily’s positive spirit, authenticity, and enthusiasm have left a meaningful mark on our school community. She has been a tireless advocate for students and a supportive colleague whose energy and dedication will be greatly missed.”
Though they have to say goodbye, Milon’s impact as a teacher will remain.
“Wherever Ms. Milon goes, I hope that she accomplished all her goals and all her dreams, and wherever she goes, to remind her that her students still love and care for her and want the best for her,” Vieyra said.
