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Jennifer Mastroni
Jennifer Mastroni, Ansonia’s Teacher of the Year, is the type of person whose lessons go beyond what is written in the curriculum and who cares more about the students than she does about herself.
This is how Courtney Hart, the culinary arts teacher at AHS, describes Mrs. Mastroni, who was her teacher and is now a colleague.
“Her classes taught ‘real life’ lessons with ‘real life’ applications. She aimed her teaching away from the theory and more towards how to use it in the future,” Courtney wrote of Mastroni’s teaching style, when Courtney attended Ansonia High from 2001 – 2005. “Looking now from a teacher perspective, Jennifer Mastroni embodies all the characteristics that you learn about in your college education classes … She pushed her students to be as good as they could be in the classroom and out of it.”
Mastroni, a business education teacher at AHS, was honored at the Connecticut Teacher of the Year ceremony at The Bushnell in Hartford on Dec. 4.
She started her 21st year of teaching in late August. It was her first teaching job, and it has become her home, she said. “When I wrote my speech [for convocation], I thought of all of the former students who have gone on to do great things – and that makes me feel proud. My speech wasn’t about data. I told my colleagues to look to their left and to their right. These are the individuals who make education great.”
A teacher whose subject matter continues to change and evolve, Mastroni said it is a challenge, but one that she embraces. Through the years, more business courses have been added, and she is now teaching four classes a day.
The other major change is the extreme popularity of social media. Mastroni said she has noted that it does detract students from what is right in front of them, as well as the lessons that are part of most adult’s daily lives: taxes, budgets, and resumes. Mastroni said she has experienced the positive outcome of social media: “hearing” from former students, who were reminiscing about what they learned in Mastroni’s class. “They were writing about the soft skills that are needed to nail the job interview,” she said. “I used to really question myself, wondering if my students were listening. Hearing from these students, and many other former students, I know that some of them were!”
Some of the “fun” things she does with her students are also benefitting the community. Through the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Club, Mastroni works with her students in a toy drive for Toys for Kids, then chaperones a trip to the Toys for Kids store, where students deliver the donations and work in the store for a few hours. “I talk to them on the bus about appreciating what they have in life,” she said. “I remind them that some of the other students in our schools are going to be the recipients of these gifts.”
Mastroni’s advice to those who want to be a teacher or are currently a teacher is the same: “When you wake up and put your feet on the floor, make sure you are happy where you are going. Otherwise, you aren’t in the right career.”
