Teacher of the Month: Breanna Sumy
Breanna Sumy, third from right, with her fourth-grade classroom.
The Teacher of the Month series runs for the next 11 months in partnership with Berkshire Community College.
Sumy has always known that she wanted to work with children and was inspired by her own teachers.
Their example influenced her to become an educator herself so that she could have a similar influence on the children in her classroom.
Sumy has fond memories from her time at Morningside as a pupil and has returned to her alma mater to teach the fourth grade.
After graduation from high school in 2011, she jumped right into the educational field by working in child care. From there she moved on to work in the public schools as a paraprofessional.
Sumy left the field for a short time working as a medical records keeper but didn't feel like she was making an impact on the community like she wanted to.
Although this is her first year teaching, her co-workers, principals and students sang her praises for the work she has been doing.
Sumy has been working incredibly hard and has been adjusting well as a first year teacher, Morningside co-Principal Elisabeth Lamoureaux said.
Co-Principal Jennifer Teichert echoed these remarks adding that being a former student at Morningside may contribute to her success.
"The kids love her and it's really exciting for us to have a former student now working as a teacher in the building," Teichert said.
"I think that's one of the reasons why she was so successful is because she is relatable to the kids because she's from this neighborhood. She's really supportive of everybody in our community."
When given a chance to describe their teacher, her students excitedly praised her calling her kind, fun, and inspiring. One even compared her to a lion because of her strength.
Paraprofessional Paul Ithete said Sumy has grown as a teacher and gained the respect from her students since the beginning of the year.
"She's firm but fair, but also at the same time willing to adjust to whatever the kid might need. So I have nothing but praise for Ms. Sumy. Like, I've seen her just develop as a teacher and I'm just very proud of her," Ithete said.
Sumy said she focuses on social emotional learning as well as academics. Social emotional learning is crucial because even as adults we "fall all over the place in life" if we can't learn to manage our problems and emotions, she said.
"I start with [social emotional learning.] I built a very great community in my classroom and that has helped keep the expectations in place," Sumy said.
"And they have grown to be like the best of friends and great helpers so I wouldn't be able to be the teacher I am without them for sure."
The classroom is very interactive, collaborative, and there are a lot of student-led lessons to demonstrate to her students that they are all capable of teaching each other, she said. "I'm the teacher of the class, but they're all capable of teaching each other skills that I want to be able to teach. Because a lot of learning we do it's from our peers."
Sumy’s positivity and history with the school is one of the things that makes her special because of the insight it provides, fourth-grade teacher Samantha Boyle said.
Boyle said she doesn't think she could have survived the school year without Sumy because at the start of the year, they had a team of four teachers but then went down to two.
"She offers an insight into the community and just gives a different light on how this school affects people. We don't think about our kids growing up and how we affect them. We think of them in the moment, but she's an example of like a full cycle student," Boyle said.
Sumy graduated from Berkshire Community College and looks forward to continuing to grow. She has been attending Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts to obtain her bachelor's degree and plans to graduate in December 2024.