Educator of the Year Nomination
Mrs. Elia

Thinking back on grade school, there are three things that I remember vividly: the mediocre lunch meals, the horrendous plaid skirts, and Mrs. Antoinette Elia. Having gone to a small Catholic school, many of the teachers taught more than one grade. Mrs. Elia taught Spanish and Religion to the middle school. She knew everything there was to know about the Catholic religion, and had a DVD or book on something she didn’t. There wasn’t a day she wasn’t prepared for class, and a day she wasn’t ready to walk into school with a smile on her face. Mrs. Elia is one of the most kindhearted women I know. She always put her students’ needs in front of her own.
She was also my Confirmation teacher in eighth grade. Myself and seven other students were put in her class, and she was to prepare and guide us to be confirmed into the church. The first session was held on a Sunday morning in October of 2012. I remember this day clearly because Mrs. Elia was kind enough to buy our group Dunkin Donuts. That wasn’t the only occurrence where she thought about her students’ happiness as a priority. Every year, she buys her seventh grade homeroom class a small Christmas gift. Usually, it’s the student buying their teacher presents, but not Mrs. Elia. She’d often surprise our class with homemade cookies and brownies. This was all completely unnecessary and out of the kindness of her heart. I still cannot thank her enough.
Being a freshman in high school now, Spanish class is very important to me. In fact, I have one of the highest averages in the grade. I owe a lot of my knowledge regarding Spanish to Mrs. Elia. In grade school, nobody liked Spanish class. It was basically forty-five minutes of copying definitions and sentences into our notebooks, over and over again. We used every last page of our notebooks, front and back. However, if you were to speak to any of Mrs. Elia’s past students, I can guarantee they would thank her for all that writing we did. Looking back now, I greatly appreciate it.
Walking into Mrs. Elia’s class everyday for three years taught me a few things. She taught me how to show my teachers respect and to behave well mannered- not only in class, but also in the community. Because I got to a military oriented school now, her strict demeanor put me in line. Mrs. Elia also made me realize that I needed to put others before myself. It always seemed like we were involved in food drives or fundraisers aimed to collect money for the less fortunate.
It’s not everyday you come across somebody so devoted, someone who cares for their students as much as Mrs. Antoinette Elia did. After all these years, Toni still has such a positive attitude towards educating children. She sees the good in everyone, and she’s also the strongest people I know. She’s a mother, an educator, a cancer survivor, and so much more. I’m so glad I had the pleasure of being taught by Mrs. Elia.