Featured Teacher: Mrs. DeMichino-Acquadro: This is your life

Mrs. DeMichino-Acquadro is a famed biology teacher here at Oratory Prep. She instructs her students with authority yet instills knowledge into every single student of hers, whether they are freshmen or AP students. Mrs. DeMichino-Acquadro has taught at Oratory since 2010 and has since been serving as the Director of Curriculum at Oratory and the Academic Dean of Math and Science. She has taught numerous young geniuses such as Nick Browne and Adam Lewis. Even with her impressive teaching record, the Omega News team was lucky enough to earn an interview with this OP faculty member.

Mrs. DeMichino-Acquadro, what made you want to go into teaching?

“I always found that I liked the environment of schools and when I got to college I realized how much I was interested in biology.”

What made biology stand out among the other subjects you could have taught?

“It was my major in college and I became more attracted to the subject as time went on and here I am.”

What is your favorite lesson when teaching your students about biology?

“I believe that genetics portion in biology is pretty interesting. It is pretty cool since it teaches the students how people get certain traits. Plus, for some reason students love punnett squares so it is fun seeing them express their interest in my favorite topic as well.”

If not for biology, what would be another subject you would love to teach?

“When I was younger, I thought I wanted to do something in art because I loved drawing and I wasn’t bad at it. So I guess I would say teaching art would have been a fun alternative.”

What was the appeal of teaching at Oratory to you?

“Oratory was the first interview I had and when I was first here I thought how this was a nice place. It put a really good first impression on me with nice students and a good setting.”

Besides Nick Browne and my freshman bio class, what was your favorite class of all time?

“Um, I think that every year has a new good class. I don’t have an overall favorite.”

If you had to pick, do you like to teach the freshman or the more experienced AP Oratory students about the exciting field of biology?

“I think I like teaching freshman biology more than AP classes. It’s not because I don’t enjoy teaching AP, but it is fun getting to know when the incoming freshman when they start their student career at Oratory.”

You are the moderator of the JETs Club. Do you mind telling us about the progress the club has made as well as the neat things that you guys do?

“Well, this is the club’s 4th year and we have grown. We started at 12 its first year and currently we have 30 members. It is an interesting club where people can show their engineering side. The only challenge is getting more students involved.”

Any interest in taking on more extra curricular activities to lead, such as Mr. McCrystal’s spot as the head XC coach?

“Whats that? (It stands for cross country) Oh, cross country. Probably not, I would not be any help in sports.”

So we will finish this interview off with an ultimatum. If Amos and your husband Mr. Acquadro were hanging off a cliff and you could only save one of them, which one would you save and why?

“I would save my husband, Mr. Acquadro, but I am amazing so i can save everyone if I was in that type of situation.”

As you can see, the Oratory community is lucky to have Mrs. DeMichino-Acquadro in our hallways and classrooms.