Each year, Newton South recognizes two educators for their outstanding work in the South community.
This year’s winners of the Ann Elliott-Holmes Excellence in Teaching Award were English teacher Kelli Fitzgerald and math and physics teacher Ryan Normandin.
Ms. Fitzgerald works especially hard to foster an inclusive and warm community within her classroom which allows each of her students to thrive and reach their full potential. Fitzgerald states, “One of my favorite quotes is by Maya Angelou: ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’ Of utmost importance to me is that my classroom is a safe and secure environment for all students.”
Freshman Emily Frawley notes that “[Ms. Fitzgerald] is easy to talk to and understanding when things come up.” Frawley also adds, “I knew Ms. Fitzgerald took a personal interest in her students and what is going on in their lives outside of the classroom when I saw her after track. [Ms. Fitzgerald] was cheering on the softball team at senior night long past when she could have gone home.”
Fitzgerald also advises the 2024 class office, hoping to cultivate a community across the entire school. The class of 2024 vice president, Raina Bornstein recalls, “[Ms. Fitzgerald] has worked to make this organization a more unified and collaborative community. ”
As for Mr. Normandin, he goes above and beyond, teaching students quantum mechanics and screenwriting during their overlapping free blocks. He also creates the problem sets for his honors precalculus classes in order to challenge his students and deepen their understanding of the course content.
Junior Aimee Pan explains, “Everyone who has Norm works together, and he gives us many opportunities to grow and learn together.” Pan notes that this creates a strong community not only within their class but across the entire course.
Pan also adds, “During class when he’s teaching he’s not just trying to get us to memorize formulas—he wants us to really understand why each step is happening in order to gain the deepest understanding possible. [Normandin] always spends time trying to answer each question thoughtfully and fully.”
When asked what goals Mr. Normandin had in the classroom, he stated “I don’t want to challenge them for the sake of making things hard—I want them to struggle because the struggle is the learning. The value is in the journey itself, and I hope that when my students leave my class and realize how far they’ve come, they’ll understand that each and every one of them is truly capable of doing anything they put their minds to. Not all of my students will choose to be mathematicians or scientists, but I hope that all of them will carry with them an improved approach to learning, a confidence that can only come from hard-earned success, and a willingness to make changes in the face of failure.”
Normandin adds, “I want my students to believe, to know, that I both want them to succeed, and know that they can—that I care about them as people first and students second.”
Both Mr. Normandin and Ms. Fitzgerald are exemplary educators who deserve to be recognized for their dedication to their students, South’s community, and their outstanding work. Congratulations to them both!
