Meet a Golden Apple Finalist from Lake View High School

While in college, initially as a pre-med student, Ms. Puja Ramaswamy realized that she did not enjoy large lecture halls. She felt disconnected from her professors and unseen as one student in a room of so many people. But, in her much smaller music classes, she felt like she was thriving because she was forming strong connections with her professors and peers. So, she pivoted into music education and has now been teaching for nearly 15 years. 

“It’s so important to follow your passions because if you are not happy with your job as an adult, your life will be miserable,” she said. “Every day I come to work, I enjoy what I do. I love my students, and I love sharing my musical passion with them. And that makes it fun.” 

Prior to teaching at Lake View High School for the past four years, Ms. Ramaswamy taught middle school students. Transitioning to teaching at a high school meant redefining her priorities as an educator. She explains that teaching younger students focuses more on keeping them excited and engaged about music, while teaching older students centers on acting as a guide for her students and helping them navigate what comes next after high school. 

“Yes, I teach music and teach students how to sing, but I’m also teaching them life skills that they’re going to need as adults,” she said. “I talk to them about holding themselves accountable and help them see that what really matters is what we are working together as a team to accomplish.” 

As both a music teacher and her school’s choir director, Ms. Ramaswamy focuses on making sure that her students’ identities and interests are reflected in the music that she selects. For example, one of her classes is singing “Stand By Me,” but, instead of performing the more widely known version by Ben E. King, she selected the version by Prince Royce, which allows her students to sing part of the song in Spanish. 

“The first day I introduced the song, my students started dancing bachata, and it was really meaningful for them because they felt like their identities were being represented in my classroom,” she said. “Getting to know their interests more is important to me, so I have them analyze the meaning of the lyrics and connect them to their history and experiences.” 

Having a mom who worked as a travel agent meant that she has traveled the world, and this global perspective has also informed her approach to teaching. Her experience studying abroad in Italy, which included experiencing live operas, has shaped her point of view regarding the school’s residency program with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where a teaching artist instructs students virtually about opera. 

“This partnership has been an eye-opener because opera can feel like such a foreign art form to my students based on their backgrounds,” she said. “I want to make it a little more attainable and show them how opera still lives on today.” 

For the remainder of the school year, Ms. Ramaswamy is focused on perseverance and resilience. She wants to show her students that they can bounce back from the challenges of the pandemic. Perseverance has been important to her career too; what keeps her coming back to teaching each year is the feeling of being a lifelong learner. 

The joy of learning alongside her students every day is what makes her job challenging, exciting, and, above all else, fun. 

Ms. Ramaswamy is one of the District’s 13 finalists for the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. Learn more about the finalists here.