Ms. Tomanov has been teaching at Ben Davis High School for two years now as a Creative Writing teacher and she also teaches English 10. She talks about her background, being born in Bulgaria, speaking three languages, and how she found her interest in the English language.

• Tell me briefly about your background

“I was originally born in Sofia, Bulgaria. When I was four months old, my parents moved to Chicago in the United States. So, I was raised in Chicago, then, at 18, I enrolled at Butler University, graduated from Butler, lived in Spain for a year, the pandemic happened, then I eventually came back out to Indianapolis, and I’ve been teaching at Ben Davis for a little over a year now.”

• Was it always your dream to teach English or was there something else you wanted to do?

“I always knew that English was my favorite subject. At one point in my life, I did not want to teach it, specifically in high school. But once I got to college, I changed my mind and decided that education is the field I wanted to pursue, alongside English. And I always knew I wanted to teach older students and not elementary schoolers. I’m happy to be teaching 10-12 graders.”

• How many languages do you speak?

“I speak 3 languages. English, Bulgarian and Spanish.”

• So, why teach English out of those three?

“Teaching Bulgarian would be difficult because there’s not much demand for that as a language. I’ve taught Spanish virtually during the pandemic, where I taught Spanish 1. But my real passion is in language arts, writing, reading books, and analyzing them.”

• Is there anyone in particular that inspires you? 

“My parents inspire me a lot. They came to the United States with a newborn, me, and have been able to get me through to college and I’m living the American Dream, thanks to them. So, they really inspire me with their ability to face challenges. And being in a country with limited English, they were able to “make it” in this country.”

• How long have you been teaching? 

“Technically, I’ve been teaching for four years now, but it’s only my second year at Ben Davis.”

• How has it been teaching at Ben Davis so far?

“It’s been good, there’s a lot of students, lots of variety in my classes. Teaching English 10 and Creative Writing is a very different method of teaching, so, I’m definitely growing and learning every single day as a result of my students and the material.”

• What is your favorite thing about teaching at Ben Davis?

“My favorite thing is helping students who also have very similar backgrounds to me and just need that support system to reach their dream. I love being that for my students. I also love helping them reach their full potential.”

• What do you want the student body to know about you?

“People do get to know me, especially in my classes, and get to see both my academic side and my fun side. I want them to know that I love just being silly but also that structure that school provides to kinda feel like we’re on track with our lives.”

• Since you’ve started working here, what things can you say you like or dislike about the school or even your department?

“I like the ability to be creative when it comes to assignments and implementing new activities in the classroom. Sometimes, there is the risk of things not working out but I like that I’m able to curate what I want in my classroom and see if it works for my students.”

Five quick questions:

• What’s your favorite color?

“Sage Green”

• What’s your favorite breakfast food?

“Probably an omelet with feta cheese and ham”

• Where was the last place you visited?

“I was just in Bulgaria over fall break for the full two weeks”

• What do you enjoy doing for fun?

“I like to hang out with my friends, rollerskate, watch reality tv shows and I like going to different restaurants around Indianapolis.”

• What’s your favorite movie?

“The devil wears Prada.”