Superintendent of Schools Dr. William McKersie has announced the selection of Greenwich High School Mathematics teacher Maryann Franchella as the Greenwich Public Schools representative for the 2016 Connecticut Teacher of the Year program.
A math teacher with more than 20 years of experience, Ms. Franchella will be recognized by the Board of Education at the June meeting at Glenville School.
Dr. McKersie said, “Maryann Franchella is known as a rigorous, creative and compassionate math teacher. She is committed to ensuring that students at all levels of math succeed and many of her students have gone on to be math majors at leading colleges and universities. She has a long record of advancing her own math knowledge through year-round study and sharing what she has learned with colleagues. Fellow teachers consider Ms. Franchella one of their most giving and trusted peers. As the mother of two budding teachers, she is newly dedicated to improving the processes for recruiting, developing and retaining teachers. Ms. Franchella’s broad expertise on teaching will represent Greenwich well in the State’s Teacher of the Year program.”
Ms. Franchella will also be honored by The Distinguished Teachers Awards Committee and by the Greenwich Kiwanis Club at the Board of Education meeting on June 16th. The Kiwanis Club will present Ms. Franchella with the Joseph Mitchell Kaye Award. Mr. Kaye was a past President of the Greenwich Kiwanis Club, a Lieutenant Governor of the Kiwanis Club for the New England District, and served on the Greenwich Board of Education.
2015 Greenwich Distinguished Teachers: Richard Crawford, Luz Desrouilleres,Cathy Byrne, Maryann Jagodzinski, Diana Willie and Maryann Franchella. Credit: Leslie Yager
Ms. Franchella is one of the six teachers selected and honored by the Distinguished Teachers Awards Committee this year in April. The Superintendent of Schools is charged with selecting from among the six Distinguished Teachers annually, the one teacher that will represent Greenwich in the State’s program. Throughout the months of May and June, Dr. McKersie reviewed the nomination packets submitted for each of the Distinguished Teachers eligible for the State’s program, spent time in each of their classrooms, debriefed the observations with each teacher and with their principal, and reviewed essays submitted as part of the selection process.
More on Maryann Franchella
Ms. Franchella began teaching mathematics in 1982 at Western Middle School. She moved to the Greenwich High School (GHS) math department in 1985 where she has taught for twenty-one of the last thirty years. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from SUNY Albany, Summa Cum Laude, and received a Master of Science degree in Computer Science, with distinction, from Pace University. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She is at once a skilled Mathematician, and the consummate learner, attending weeklong immersion courses at TAFT Educational Center before teaching calculus courses or sitting in on the Multivariable class taught at GHS by a colleague for an entire year before teaching the course herself.
Ms. Franchella has taught Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry, Pre-Calculus and various levels of Calculus. One of her students noted, “the results of her challenging questions and excellent teaching are abundantly clear. Almost every single kid in BC Calculus last year received a perfect 5 on the AP exam, and many didn’t need to study because we had truly learned the material and understood it at a depth and breadth beyond what was expected of us by the exam. She made us want to expect that understanding from ourselves.”
In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Ms. Franchella currently serves as a GHS Instructional Coach, a TEAM Mentor, a Learning Facilitator in one of the GHS Houses, and on the School Data Team. She is also the Faculty Sponsor of the Math Honor Society.
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