Mr. Roche is an 11th grade English teacher in his first year of officially teaching at South. He grew up in Northbridge and worked odd jobs before finding that teaching was his passion. Mr. Roche loved to read and discuss books; comic books and dramatic stories mostly with superheroes, drama, and romance: “I think my mother got me reading at 2-3 years old!”

He also found that he enjoyed being around younger children after school, so it was only natural he was drawn to teaching. Mr. Roche planned to move to Worcester for college, spending 2 years at Quinsigamond Community College, then transferring to Clark University, eventually serving as a  student teacher for Ms. Dunlevy through Clark University’s graduate program.

As a response to being asked why he stayed at South, Mr. Roche says, “I’m comfortable with South. I think I was drawn to learning different student backgrounds and cultures and it was very enriching.” Mr. Roche’s first experiences teaching and around high school students is at South and there’s no better way to be welcomed. He mentions he’s very excited to practice the bit of Spanish he’s learned in school, being around so many multilingual people in our diverse school.

In terms of his teaching, he says he likes leaving his classes relatively open ended for people to write for their own interests. Now as a teacher he can plan everything, set norms and expectations, and finally have control over his classroom. “It’s going pretty well, going great so far and [I] expect it to continue throughout the year.”