Posters, paintings, and pictures of various cultures and times in history crowd the walls of Room 481. Stepping into the colorful and filled room, you find it hard to tell that Upper School History Teacher Susan Elliott has only recently entered the Parker community.

Before coming to Parker, Elliott taught at an independent school in Calabasas, California called Viewpoint School. “I’m from Orange County in Los Angeles,” Elliott said. “My partner is from here, and he wanted to come home, so that’s why we moved to Chicago.” Viewpoint was an AP driven school, so Elliot taught all AP classes there.

“That is a big difference from Parker because you have to follow the National curriculum,” Elliott said, “but here we are allowed to teach whatever we want, which is really exciting.” Elliott is teaching Themes in World History for ninth graders, a semester-long course on Revolutions for tenth graders, and two classes in the second semester: True Crime in History and Ethics.

“I’m really looking forward to teaching a class on true crime in history,” Elliott said. “I was really inspired by the Netflix series, ‘Making a Murderer,’ so I constructed a whole class looking at big trials in history.”

Sophomore Alexandra Takoudis, a student in Elliott’s “Revolutions” course, is happy with Elliot so far. “I’m really enjoying getting to know Ms. Elliott, and she has kept our class intriguing and fun.” Almost every day the desks in class are organized in a different formation. Elliott walks around the room as she speaks, steadily asking students questions, both rhetorical and direct.

In the past, Elliott has taken part and worked in programs other than teaching. “As far as my background goes, I grew up in California,” Elliott said, “and I lived in DC for a while working with the Fulbright commission.” The Fulbright Commission is a program of merit based for students, teachers, scholars, and other professions. Elliott also worked in Belgium and spent a summer travelling high schools in Mexico, both as a part of the Fulbright Commission.

During a trip to Mexico visiting schools, one of the public schools she went to allowed their students only to study one of two courses: learning how to repair appliances or hotel management. “If they wanted to study dance or robotics or literature,” Elliott said, “they weren’t just allowed to, and it was a really eye-opening experience for me.”

Elliott also worked in London and ran the Florida State University study abroad program. She has travelled in many different parts of the world. “In most of my teaching career I’ve been an art history teacher,” Elliott said, “so because there is so much art in France it’s become one of my favorite places.”

“I think that Ms. Elliott is an excellent teacher,” freshman Caroline Conforti said, “because she is easy to understand and always willing to help anyone who seems to be having a harder time in class.” Many of the students in Conforti’s class are pleased with her teaching style, according to Conforti.

“I’ve noticed that Parker students are so responsible and so invested in the community,” Elliott said with a smile, “and it’s really wonderful.”