What is your name, what department do you work in, and what are your pronouns? My name is Annaliisa Ahlman, my pronouns are she/her/hers, and I teach in the Physical Welfare Department.
You coach the Auroris Dance Company. Why do you enjoy dancing? As I was growing up, if I was having a stressful day at school, then going to the dance studio after school was a place where I was able to put aside everything else from the day, and just focus on one singular thing that I needed to work on. And so that was really freeing for me. Dance has an opportunity for a lot of creativity, for a lot of personal fulfillment, and for a lot of working together with a group, but also needing to continue working on your own journey and your own path. So it’s kind of the best of all worlds.
You also sponsor the Niles North GSA club. Why is that important to you? How do you feel LGBTQ+ students are treated at Niles North? I really feel like it is important to help students be able to have a voice and be able to be who they are, and be able to also have safe adults in the building who could look out for them and could be a safe space for folks to come talk or to share frustrations, or if a student has needed help with anything. At North, I’ve witnessed disparaging comments made against LGBTQ individuals. For folks who make [those comments], whether that’s in the hallway or in classes, I wonder if [they] are unaware of how their remarks are landing, or if it’s an issue of not caring or being disrespectful. And so then, I think that’s a challenging thing to figure out.
How do you make space for students who have been hurt? My door is always open. I try to be easy to find. I am an empathetic listener. I try to acknowledge students’ feelings, and then also offer different avenues for support, knowing that I am not the be-all-end-all at school, and there are a lot of caring adults [here].
What is your favorite thing to do outside of work? Probably cooking, reading, yoga, doing movement for myself.
Who do you look up to most in your life? From a school perspective, I think I look up to a lot of teachers who have retired in the last few years. If we think about Mrs. Ordoñez, or Mrs. Ingraham, who are former English teachers (now retired) and North Star News sponsors…it’s folks like Mrs. Ordoñez and Mrs. Ingraham who I have looked up to as mentors, from a teaching perspective. Even though they are no longer teaching in the building, I still try to channel some ideas [from them] sometimes, when I need a little bit of motivation.
Where would you like to live, if you could live anywhere on Earth? I had an opportunity to visit Finland this summer, and I’m not sure that I would want to live there 12 months a year, because of the weather, but I think I would definitely like a summer home there. It’s beautiful. It was a heritage visit for me—I’d never been there before, but that’s where my father’s family is from originally. There are a lot of lakes. There are really long days during the summer, so there’s a lot of natural beauty. And there’s a lot of emphasis, culturally, on care for the environment and spending time outdoors, and those sorts of recreational activities.
What is your favorite movie? I think my favorite movie is Matilda, [based on the book] by Roald Dahl. I love the musical, but I also love the movie. I think that the ability for this young person to notice what’s going on, or not going on, around her, and to see injustices and take matters into her own hands, I feel like that is a timeless, but also important story.
If you wrote your memoir, what would you want to put in it? I think I would want to put in my memoir, stories about, and moments from, the people in my family and my circle of friends and my students who have shaped me the most. I think it’s a really special thing to be a teacher. I think that I have an opportunity in this profession to interact with so many young people as they are growing up, and I think that, obviously, students learn from teachers, but I think that I learn just as much from students, as well, and just as much from members of my own family, and friends, and folks out in the world. So I think I would want to find a way, in a memoir, to bring all of those many different people and stories together, because it is the community around me that continues to help shape who I am.
