Teacher Spotlight: Ms. Madani

New Jamesville-DeWitt High School physics teacher Leila Madani pulls back the monkey's elastic arms and sends him flying across the physics room. The monkey hits the floor and slides while Ms. Madani grins at her new toy. Someone left this slingshot monkey in her desk drawer and she is looking forward to using him in class as an example of elastic potential energy. She also has an Albert Einstein action figure on her bulletin board.

Ms. Madani came to Syracuse in July of 2009 from Sleepy Hollow, New York. When Ms. Madani moved here, it wasn't for a full-time teaching job.

"I moved up out of love," she says. Ms. Madani came to Central New York because her fiancé lives here.

When this school year began, Ms. Madani was substituting at schools all over Onondaga County. The principal of Lafayette High School, where Ms. Madani was substituting, let her know that J-DHS was in need of a physics teacher. She first told the principal that she couldn't take the job, because she was taking classes at Syracuse University part-time. The principal gave Ms. Madani Principal Paul Gasparini's phone number anyway, and told her to call about the job.

Before Ms. Madani officially took over on Jan. 26, Mr. Morse was one of the three physics teachers filling in for James Blasland. Many seniors have said they prefer Ms. Madani's teaching methods to Mr. Morse's. For example, Joey Shepard, a senior, prefers Ms. Madani because she's more interactive.

Senior Jake Merola enjoys Ms. Madani's classes more than Mr. Morse's because she's a "better-people person and can relate to students more because she's younger."

Teaching at J-DHS is very different from teaching at Sleepy Hollow High School, says Ms. Madani. Because she was the only physics teacher at SHHS, she enjoys having two other physics teachers around to help her. She taught physics to freshmen for seven years at SHHS; however now she's teaching seniors. "I hate senioritis, and all my students are taller than me!" Ms. Madani laughs. Despite this, she says she enjoys her students.

And her students enjoy her.

Tim Bright, a senior, says, "She's really nice. I can pay attention to her."

Merola agrees, saying, "She's a great teacher. She does a lot of cool stuff in class, like games." Other seniors have also said that Ms. Madani is a fun and interesting teacher because she has her classes play a lot of games.

Ms. Madani says she loves playing games with her students to make classes interactive. An example of a game they play is Mouse Trap, which demonstrates energy transformation and the conservation of energy. Ms. Madani also creates her own games, like "Who's the Most Powerful in Class?" where she tested students' upper arm strength with physics. "I like to play games and laugh at my students," she jokes.

Senior Sarah Meile says, "I like her. She makes it fun."

Ms. Madani says she has gained many things by coming to J-DHS, including knowledge, a better idea of her role as an educator, excellent colleagues, and discoveries in her desk drawers.

Born and raised in Kingston, New York, Ms. Madani has a bubbly personality and enjoys salsa and belly dancing. Ms. Madani says she used to sing "surf punk funk" music in a band called Flushing Tea Party, which was named by the men of the band. "I didn't want anything to do with the name," she laughs.

She loves to travel, and has been to over 30 countries, with her favorites being Australia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Canada, and Japan.

Currently, she is balancing teaching at J-DHS and taking classes at SU full-time.