The Marvelous Ms. Hajjar

Looking for an obtainable AP class to get college credit and have fun? Psychology sounds like a class for you. One of the incredible Psychology teachers at Blake, Ms. Hajjar, knows just how to make your class an experience you’ll never forget. 

To say Ms. Hajjar is the most enthusiastic teacher is an understatement. She brings positive energy to every single class period, her lessons are engaging and interactive, not a class you could fall asleep in. She never fails to make sure all of her students are comfortable and understanding the material. I was one of the few sophomores who was taking AP Psychology last year, and being in a class with primarily seniors was hard to adjust to. She made me feel welcome and not afraid to be in a class with kids I didn’t know. Everything she taught last year has been engraved into my hippocampus, she has an abundance of mnemonic devices to help students remember all the terms covered in class. 

Senior Jessica Kabik, who also took her class sophomore year, says, β€œMs. Hajjar is one of the most understanding and upbeat teachers I’ve ever had. She makes an AP class fun to attend. It’s obvious that she enjoys what she teaches, which makes it easy for us students to have fun learning valuable content!” Ms. Hajjar is always outgoing, β€œwhich makes her lessons interesting and easy to engage with.” 

If you aren’t signed up for AP Psychology yet then you should, this isn’t a class you want to miss out on. In a survey sent out to her AP Psychology classes, 95.7% of her students agreed that the material covered in her class is interesting and meaningful to their everyday life. She will teach you so many important life lessons and psychology terms you can use in your everyday life. For example, the door-in-the-face phenomenon: the tendency to agree to a smaller request after rejecting a larger one. This can be used to convince your parents to let you stay out longer or buy you that thing you’ve been wanting. Or chunking; to easily memorize codes, phone numbers, or lists. 

100% of her students believe that Ms. Hajjar could teach AP Psychology to any student, on level, honors, or AP. Her excellence in adapting to any student’s accommodations reflects her strong work ethic and genuine love for teaching. She is always boosting her student’s intrinsic motivation to do better in their academics. 

Did you know that Ms. Hajjar went to seventeen schools before college? She graduated from Frederick High School and earned her degree in Social Work at UMBC. Then, she went on to earn her master’s degree of Arts in Social Studies Education at UMUC, a certification in Social Studies secondary education in Maryland. Since then, she has obtained her Master’s plus 30. She became interested in teaching when learning about social work. She wanted β€œto change the world… to work with [her]  favorite demographic: teenagers.” Ms. Hajjar said she always wanted β€œto help people go forth and do good in the world,” which she does every day with her job. 

No one knows what they want to do when they grow up. But Ms. Hajjar said when she was in high school, β€œI just wanted to β€˜make it’ β€” make a place for myself in the world and change it for the better. I never had a career in mind. I sort of thought it would come to me… It doesn’t come to you, you have to go out and get it.” This is exactly what she did β€” she studied social work to start and to understand better the complexities of the foster care system in which she grew up and found the best place to change the world from there: teaching.