Mrs. Aldridge has been a teacher for around 30 years. She started in 1995 at Atherton, making her one of the longest running teachers to date. As of the 2024-25 school year, she primarily teaches Algebra 2 to sophomores. She began as a physics and math teacher, and then switched to be entirely math later on in her career. I had the opportunity to interview her about her teaching history, hobbies, and advice for the future.
Why did you choose Atherton specifically?
“You know it’s funny. I liked Atherton when I was growing up. I had a lot of friends that went to school here. I liked the culture and the climate…When I was doing my student teaching the woman that I student taught with, she asked me where I wanted to teach and I said Atherton, and she said, ‘Good luck getting a job there,’ because at the time, it was really hard to get a teaching job at Atherton because everybody wanted to be here…I just got very lucky that I got hired here. It just happened that I was certified to teach math and physics and they had an opening and there weren’t a lot of people that could fill it.”
What are some of your hobbies?
“I love to do crafts and things, I like knitting. I like needlepoint.
I like books. I like watching movies…My favorite movie is an old movie. It’s The Seventh Samurai, it’s Japanese, and they actually played it at the Sweet Art Museum last year. It’s a long movie, but it’s really great. I would recommend everybody see it.”
What is one piece of advice you would give to high school students?
“I would say a couple of things. First of all, it might not seem like it while you’re going through it, but your high school years are gonna fly by so enjoy your time…High school is a time for you to be trying different things. Try to get involved in your community, be open to trying different things. It’s time for you to explore and figure out who you are and what you like…And then, you know, try to make a lot of good friends along the way and try to keep those friendships going after you graduate high school, because it’s easy to lose touch with people that you go to high school with. You are going different places but try to keep in touch with them, either by making a point to all get together, like when you’re home over Christmas break or things like that.”