Members of our St. Mary Magdalen community,
I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly thank our staff for the high-quality of work they consistently provide to all of our students. During this teacher appreciation week, I would ask each of us to think of a teacher that has made a meaningful impact in their life.
For me, this was my middle school science teacher, Mr. Levy who taught at St. Joan of Arc school. His class was the first one I can remember truly enjoying. I liked school growing up but I had never had a class that I was so excited to go to every day that I didn’t want to miss it.
I can’t tell you exactly what it was that I enjoyed in my class. I thought science was fascinating but I also thought history was fascinating. I also cannot say exactly what it was about his style of instruction that captivated me. There was nothing about his instructional style that could be described in today’s educational language as innovative, but it was consistently excellent. I can tell you that for all the myriad of questions I continually posed to him not one went unanswered. I always felt like a valued member of that class. I connected so completely to science and learning in this class that I went on to preferentially take additional science courses in high school, to pursue a biology degree in college and a M.A. in Teaching and a M.S. in Geoscience. In high school and college, thinking back to my experiences in that middle school class, I realized that I wanted to share that kind of experience with others. I knew that I wanted to become a teacher.
It is amazing what kind of impact a truly great teacher can have on someone’s life. As I have become part of this St. Mary Magdalen community I have seen many lessons, provided by many teachers, in many grade levels. I can tell you that I have been incredibly impressed by the professionalism, dedication, and talent of the staff we have here. I have worked for many years, with many teachers who teach for a variety of reasons, but I have never experienced a single school that had more people working with the authentic student first mindset that our staff have.
If your student has had an exceptional experience with one of our staff I would encourage you to have your student say thank you this week as we appreciate our teachers. As a school, appreciating our teachers is also something that we take seriously. That is why in this coming year we are allocating the majority of the tuition increase to help compensate our teachers and provide them with an equitable salary. This is a sustained commitment to make sure that we can attract and retain the talented, hardworking, and exceptional staff that we have. I know that our teachers make a difference in the lives of our students. I have personally experienced the impact that an exceptional teacher can have on the life of a student. I feel truly grateful, each day, that I have the opportunity to work in this school community.
Teachers of St. Mary Magdalen, thank you for choosing to be part of our community and for the incredibly important work that you regularly accomplish. You are making a difference in the lives of our students.