Schools

Anderson Cites Caring and Commitment for Helping to Make Her 'Teacher of the Year'

Meet Mary Anderson, the Manchester Teacher of the Year.

It’s been an interesting reign for Mary Anderson, who was named Manchester Teacher of the Year last May.

Anderson, who teaches family and consumer sciences at Manchester High School, was supposed to be formally recognized for her accomplishment as part of the high school’s convocation ceremony in late August. But Tropical Storm Irene forced the cancellation of that event as the town and school system struggled to clean up the storm’s damage just days before the start of school.

Then, she was supposed to have been honored by her peers as part of the high school’s in-service activities on Nov. 8, Election Day, but again freak weather led to the cancellation of the event. Manchester Public Schools lost a week of classes to the power outages caused by Winter Storm Alfred, and Interim Superintendent Richard Kisiel elected to hold classes last Tuesday to recapture lost days, again canceling the event where Anderson was to have received her reocognition.

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But Anderson said that, as she has approached most of her teaching career, she is taking the repeated cancellations of her deserved recognition in stride and with the proper amount of good humor.

“Mother Nature has it out for me. I’m trying to not take it personally,” she said. “It’s becoming like a joke. In fact my assistant principal, Jim Farrell, is saying, ‘well, when is the next time you can possibly get recognized?’ And I said, ‘why, do you want to make emergency preparations for another natural disaster?’” 

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Anderson began teaching in the Manchester Public Schools system in 1981, and through the years has taught at practically every school in the system, from the elementary to the middle school to the high school level. In fact, she credits a major career shift that came as a result of the merging of Bennett and Illing middle schools in the early 2000s with making her the well-rounded and experienced teacher that she is today.

When those two schools were combined into one middle school for the town, Anderson found herself displaced and said she spent the next several years “team teaching” out of her car and traveling around to all eight elementary schools in town teaching sixth graders.

“What I thought was a terrible deal ended up being personally and professionally a wonderful experience,” she said. “I got to team teach and learn so much from all these wonderful teachers. It opened my eyes. I got to see what it was like to be an elementary school teacher. I’ve been a middle school teacher. It was professionally a huge growth period for me.”

Colleagues cite the rapport Anderson is able to build with her students as one of her biggest strengths. 

“Mrs. Anderson has what I feel is the most important ability of any educator, the ability to develop positive personal relationships with her students, “ Mike Saimond, the principal of Verplanck Elementary School who worked with Anderson for years at Illing Middle School, wrote in a letter of recommendation supporting Anderson’s application for teacher of the year. “The students in her classes know that she cares about the information in her lessons but more importantly they know that Mrs. Anderson cares about them as individuals.”

Students also praise Anderson as a teacher who takes the time to get to know them on a one-on-one basis and build strong, lasting relationships with them.

Ashley Perez, a senior at MHS and a two-time All State shooting guard on the school’s girls basketball team, said she took Anderson’s sports nutrition class and that it helped her to understand the importance of proper nutrition for an athlete, which Perez credits for helping to improve her stamina and conditioning. Perez on a basketball scholarship.

“She taught me a lot about how to eat right and why that was so important for my body,” Perez recently told Patch.

Anderson was formally recognized as Manchester Teacher of the Year by the Board of Education as part of its meeting Monday evening. And, for once, the weather cooperated.


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