The much anticipated return of art teacher, Mrs. French, took place right in time for the start of Nashoba’s new school year. The bubbly teacher’s absence left a hole in the art department for almost half a year while she was recovering from an injury to the back.

Mrs. French had to leave Nashoba on January 5th due to an injury she sustained from slipping on water in the Teacher’s Room. The technical name for what happened was a herniated disk in her cervical spine, accompanied by tears to the rotator cuff in her left shoulder. Unfortunately, injuries of that magnitude don’t just heal overnight. Mrs. French continues to work on rehabilitating her neck for strength and range of motion. She explains that “the neurologist has stated that it will be a long recovery, a least 1 year for the cervical spine to heal. My shoulder is getting stronger each day.”

Thankfully, she is in a much better place now than at the beginning of the healing process. When initially absent, she couldn’t do much of anything. But after several weeks stem therapy began, and after several months she could start to add hydrotherapy into her routine. She has recently started using resistance bands to strengthen shoulder muscles which will help increase her range of motion.

Doctors finally cleared Mrs. French to return to work on August 28th. She is very excited to be back at Nashoba after almost 8 months of missing her students and contemporaries. She also missed “being part of a great teaching team. I find joy and excitement throughout the creative process.  The art students are so enthusiastic about their work and they value and respect their peers… I missed pretty much everything except the crazy time 4 minutes in between classes.”