“Follow your dreams and do the things that you love doing” is just one of the mottos of Christine Montano, a math teacher who started at West Haven High School in 2005.

Before her time in West Haven, she worked in Bridgeport as a middle-school math teacher and in Canada as a tax instructor. She said she learns from her students as much as they learn from her. She forms bonds with her students by always being there for them in schoolwork and just in life.

“I love teaching, I wouldn’t change it,” she said. “It was the best decision for me to become a teacher.” Mrs. Montano emphasizes to students there are many different paths to success, noting that she didn’t attend college right after high school and they don’t have to either.

Mrs. Montano grew up in a low-income rental apartment, where she shared a room with two siblings.

“College was never discussed in our home,” she said. “We were expected to graduate high school and get a job.”

Mrs. Montano decided to become a math teacher when she was 33, leaving a 17-year gap between high school and college. She treats all her students as if they’ll be going to college, even though some might not go immediately after high school.

“It’s good for them to know that it is never too late to get a better education,” she said. Mrs. Montano feels her job is more of a pleasure than work. She wants everyone to find a career like her that they love so they go to work happy. She wants her students to live their lives to the fullest.

Outside of school she has been trying her hand in paddle-boarding as a newly found Covid-possible
hobby. She has also taken on knitting, which she learned from her mother, along with painting shells.

Students who have Mrs. Montano’s class should feel lucky, as she is a hard-working and caring teacher.