With the holiday season in full swing, we at MHScroll want to acknowledge teachers and staff that we appreciate like Ms. Stephanie Hayes, a government teacher here at Manchester High School.

When asked what made her want to go into education, she replied, “It sort of happened by accident, what I was doing before teaching wasn’t really going to be sustainable…So I was like what can I do?  I ended up going back to school and getting my masters in teaching”. 

Hayes has been teaching for “twenty three years” and has put her undergraduate degree in Historic Preservation to use in the classroom with her masters in teaching. When inquiring what her first impression of Manchester was she responded, “I student-taught here at Manchester and I am in a really supportive department and so working here as a student-teacher definitely gave me a different perspective of the school”.

Hayes shares that she likes how “really supportive staff and faculty” are and enjoys how in a way it tends to be its own community. When questioned about how she tries to make her classroom more engaging, she answered, “I do try to use a variety of lessons and activities and things but let’s face it, I cannot compete with peoples’ phones and it’s getting harder and harder to keep people and get people interested”.

When asked how she felt about Hayes’ class, Abbie Wallace replied, “I like the way she teaches…She’s very interactive with us so it’s not a boring class.” Her fellow classmate, Hayley Robbins, answered, “There’s no pressure from her to be perfect… She creates assignments that get us to think in different ways.”

Both Wallace and Robbins highlight the engaging atmosphere of Hayes’ lessons and enjoy the critical thinking they do in her class. Since this article is about appreciation, we had to know what Hayes favorite Thanksgiving food was, she revealed, “I probably would go with turkey…you have left overs and you can make a really yummy turkey sandwich the day after.”