LEE, Mass. — St. Mary's School third-grade teacher Amanda Reis has been selected as the August Teacher of the Month. 

 

The Teacher of the Month series, in collaboration with Berkshire Community College, will feature distinguished teachers nominated by community members. You can nominate a teacher here. 

 

Although school just started a week ago, Reis is already building connections with her students. 

 

She has been teaching for seven years, spending the last two at the parochial school, which educates prekindergarten through Grade 8. During this time, she has connected with her students, created a fun learning environment, and brought to fruition several ideas.

 

"My biggest goal for my students is to try their best. That's like my motto for the year: 'to try your best.' As long as you try, you will get something out of it," Reis said. 

 

Building confidence and self-esteem is crucial in third grade, which is why it is essential to encourage students to try new things, as this may reveal talents they didn't realize they had and will provide them with different opportunities and strategies they can use, she said. 

 

"My classroom is an open place where students can be themselves and have the confidence and ability to share and learn the way they want to," she said. 

 

Last year, Reis had 12 students in her classroom; this year, she has four, which allows her to better meet their individual needs and levels.

 

A key part of her teaching style is using group and partner work. Although the class size is small, she manages to implement this through shared rotation groups with the fourth-graders. 

 

The rotation connects the third- and fourth-grade children for shared activities. The setup allows fourth-graders to take on leadership roles and model expected behaviors for the third-graders and provides the younger students with role models, fourth-grade teacher Molly Callahan said. 

 

Collaboration and community are very important to St. Mary's, Reis said. Not only do the teachers and students collaborate, but the school also works with community organizations to provide opportunities for their students. 

 

"We get to expand our learning through other resources. For example, my class this year is in charge of the school garden and fixing up the whole garden at the school as part of our science curriculum," she said. 

 

"We also get to go to local libraries to give students the opportunity to check out different books of their interests and learn about picking out books and doing things independently. And everyone within the school works together, is friendly, and we like to make sure we can foster the best relationships we can with our students." 

 

Even after moving on to fourth grade, Reis' former students still utilize the skills she instilled in them last year. 

 

"I have her classroom from last year, they were her previous third-grade class, and I would say she instilled so much confidence and supported them in any way she could," Callahan said. 

 

"I noticed when they get frustrated, they tend to go back to skills that she has taught them and used in the class previous." 

 

She noted how her former students will take a breather when getting frustrated and will ask for help, which tends to be harder for the middle and elementary kids, "because they think they've got it all together," Callahan said. 

 

Reis also demonstrated to her students that everyone learns and grows differently, and it is okay to finish work and complete work at their own pace and to do their best, she said. 

 

Upon being hired at St. Mary's last year, she came in with so many wonderful ideas and was motivated to bring programs into the school, Principal Cara Maiorano-Culver said. 

 

"In addition to being a wonderful classroom teacher who truly connects with her students, she brought in a community reader day, she helps out a lot with some of the appeals for the school, and she's just very involved with making St Mary's an amazing place to be," she said. 

 

"She started out with a class that had a lot of diverse needs and a lot of diverse personalities, and she made them into a family even more than they already were, and she really fostered a relationship between those kids and those classmates." 

 

Reis' current and former highlighted her funny and supportive nature. Several emphasized how she is funny and makes learning fun through her classroom activities. 

 

"She makes us really excited, because we know that she's funny," third-grader Giana Laura said. 

 

Reis' teaching style is diverse, incorporating PowerPoint slides, digital teaching, read-alouds, and hands-on activities. 

 

Her current and former students specifically spotlighted the games she incorporates into the classroom. 

 

"She put some games and rhymes into it so that it would help us remember it," fourth-grader Madelyn Pinsonneault said.  

 

"She had some fun methods that would help us remember it, so that when we went into fourth grade, we'd like, know a few basics and stuff like that," fourth-grader Meadow Chaffee.