Math teacher Christine Anderson wins Teacher of the Year title
Christine Anderson, who has taught calculus for two years and geometry for eight years at RHS has been awarded the Roseville Community Schools High School Teacher of the Year for the 2014-2015 school year. Currently, she spends endless nights grading calculus and geometry assignments. Anderson also takes the time to make answer keys for her calculus students that way they can make sure that they are doing their homework correctly rather than having them fail a college-like class.
“She’s a very dedicated teacher. She’s probably one of my favorite teachers ever,” Anderson’s calculus student and senior Jonah Acedillo said.
Relatives, faculty, and students describe her as detail oriented, prepared, dedicated, and enthusiastic, and most deserving of this title.
“It is wonderful to be named teacher of the year, and I could not tell you how many are so much more deserving. All that hard work is being noticed,” Anderson said.
Her free time is mainly spent doing school work for the students she teaches. On top of that, she nannies for a family on the weekends. While she attended college at Madonna University and Oakland University she nannied for 32 families as a side job; however, she has nannied for the Rinke family for 16 years, and at first it was just one child, the oldest, Tripp (17), and then two more came, Annie (14) and Fran or Frannie (10).
Anderson spends a great deal of time with them. Frannie is considered to be her little pal. Before Pi Day Frannie likes to help Anderson makes pies for Anderson’s students. Frannie also likes to help her put grades on tests, and likes to ask how people are doing. Sometimes she even recognizes the name of her students based on recognition of what stories Anderson tells her from calculus.
Anderson currently resides in Grosse Pointe Woods with her parents for part of the year because her parents go down to Florida during the winter months as they own property there. She visits her parents at least once a year for a week or two depending on how the break is laid out.. Other places that she has traveled to are England, Colorado, and the Rocky Mountains.
Anderson had also grown up with her parents owning a party store. Her dad got up every morning at around four or five a.m. to go downtown to the store and worked until seven or eight at night. Her parents wanted to show her and her sister what it was like to work, so they would allow them to make pizza, price items, and let them count money. It helped her and her sister learn life skills and a good work ethic.
“Ms. Anderson shows so much compassion for her students. Her care and concern is inspiring to all of us. She started here as a student teacher with Ms. Hodge. Roseville never let her go away; one of the best decisions ever made,” principal Pete Hedemark said.
Anderson understands that people struggle when it comes to understanding subject matter. When she attended Ferry Elementary school in Grosse Pointe, she struggled with reading. She has a disability in processing written language. In fourth grade, her teacher Mr. Wallmen would pull her out of class during reading time every couple of days and they would study words to help her with grammar and spelling. He showed her flash cards and she had to say those words based off of recognition.
While she attended Grosse Pointe North High School, she says she was labeled as learning disabled. She would spend her time doing her homework after school until 11 or even later, and was not able to take any AP classes or calculus because of this, but rather classes that were more beneficial to her needs.
When she started college at Madonna University, they gave her resources to assist her with her work.
As soon as she found out she had to take a test to get into the teaching program, she asked for extra time. She took the test two or three times because the reading slowed her down. Madonna had denied the extra time she requested even though she has a disability. However, Oakland University worked with her and gave the extra time that she needed.
“In calc, I understand if they need extra time,” Anderson said.
She hopes to give each student as much support as she received while she was going through school as well as other math teachers in the building.
“Ms. Anderson has gone well out of her way to help me whenever I’ve needed assistance with geometry lessons or materials,” math teacher Ryan Hansen said.
