Barbara Hofman to travel after retirement

After teaching for 19 years at Blair, ESOL Algebra I teacher Barbara Hofman will retire next year in order to see the world.

Hofman has been a teacher for 40 years and has been at Blair for half of those years. She taught fourth grade math, Precalculus and everything in between. Before Blair, Hofman taught at schools in New Jersey, but when she married and moved to Maryland, she applied to teach in Montgomery County. Hofman was ecstatic to begin work at Blair, mostly because it "was so different than where I was [in New Jersey]."

In the previous schools where Hofman worked, students looked alike, dressed alike and had similar backgrounds. Blair was different, however, with its student diversity and dedicated teachers and administration. Some of Hofman's best memories of Blair staff members include being an SGA advisor with Linda Wanner and receiving President Clinton as a guest to Blair.

When school lets out in June, Hofman and her husband will prepare to move to Boynton Beach, Florida, where they will spend a month settling down before taking a month-long vacation to Spain and Portugal in August. The couple also plans to travel to South America in January 2005.

Hofman maintains that after leaving Blair, she will miss her students and the hard-working faculty. Throughout her years of teaching, Hofman has noted that teaching ESOL students has been one of the most positive experiences. She has made an impression on many of her students as well. Recently, Hofman received a letter from a student she taught ten years ago. "She always thought I was on her back [about something]," Hofman recalls.

However, the student now has her own daughter whom she pushes to do better. In the letter, the student admitted she now understands that Hofman "only wanted her to do the best she could."

Read more here.