Stephanie Altman

School has always been a positive and safe place for Stephanie Altman. She wants her classroom to be a positive and safe space for students as well. Her classroom is nonjudgmental, welcoming, and patient. This is her 23rd year teaching and she teaches French. She reads, quilts, and gardens, and loves everything about French language and culture.

“I had some teachers who genuinely cared about me when I was a kid. And they actually changed the course of my life, you know, help me get scholarships and things like that. So I decided I wanted to be a teacher so I could kind of pay that forward.”

Mrs. Altman has taught at many schools prior to Arlington High School, but she moved to Arlington High School because she heard such amazing things about this school and she made a goal to help grow the French program here. She’s taught elementary, middle, and high school, but decided that elementary and middle school were not for her.

“My biggest regret is not moving to high school sooner. Elementary school and that one year in middle school. They were not fun. And then when I finally moved to high school, I was like, okay, and I found my people.”

Stephanie Altman is the only French teacher here at Arlington, so that puts her apart from other teachers. She is so grateful to be here and beyond proud to be a tiger at Arlington High School.

“I feel like all of my good qualities I’ve also seen in other people here, you guys have so many great teachers, but I’m definitely the only French teacher here.