Rhode Island Teacher of the Year 2023 Lisa Leaheey North Providence

NORTH PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island’s “Instructor of the Yr” is a beloved longtime highschool English instructor who retains a library of her personal books in school to make it simpler for college kids to borrow the titles.

She was at an meeting in North Windfall Excessive College’s gymnasium when the state’s schooling commissioner, Angélica Infante-Inexperienced, broke the information Wednesday.

Lisa Leaheey expressed gratitude to her college students and colleagues, telling them, “You all encourage me.”

A household of lecturers

The momen elicited some reflections on her profession path in schooling and the “household of lecturers” she comes from, together with her grandmother and mom. Her father, the late Joseph Pasonelli, was a center faculty principal in North Windfall. 

Leaheey, who is understood by her nickname, “Pas,” recalled cheering for North Windfall at a basketball state championship sport earlier than she was a instructor.

“So I used to be destined to be right here,” she mentioned. “I believe there’s sure issues in life that convey you to the place you could be. I believe that all the things you may have completed for me and each probability and each problem and each joke and each class giggle, no matter there’s, has introduced me to the place I’m, so I can not thanks sufficient for the distinction.”

Leaheey, who has taught at the highschool for 22 years – her profession, to date – is the primary North Windfall instructor to win the award, in line with directors.

North Windfall Faculties Supt. Joseph Goho, who was the highschool’s principal, can now boast that he employed a instructor of the 12 months.

He wasted no time doing that, recalling the final feeling after Leaheey’s interviews for the job. The choice was a “no-brainer,” he mentioned.

The setting for Wednesday’s announcement was a packed gymnasium.

Infante-Inexperienced and different state schooling officers praised the scholars for his or her fortitude through the course of a highschool expertise drastically challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Directors additionally lauded Leaheey’s experience in expertise, which was a spotlight of her research as a graduate pupil. She has a grasp’s diploma in curriculum and instruction.

On the outset of the pandemic, she was “instrumental” within the conversion of school rooms to on-line studying areas, in line with a information launch issued by the state Division of Schooling.

For the previous 14 years, she has additionally helped faculty districts in Rhode Island put together for accreditation.

She stored it easy in her feedback, making clear what she loves most.

“I am only a large e-book and film nerd,” she mentioned. “And as an English instructor I get to come back in and – you’ve got all seen it – nerd out each single day on no matter it’s we’re studying and watching. I like that you just come together with me on that journey as a result of I would not presumably be right here with out all of you. You’re the motive that I’m right here.” 

She was reminded of “an outdated saying” about selecting a profession.

“You do one thing that you just love,” she mentioned, “you will by no means work a day in your life.”

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