Invested, mother-like, fantastic, and empathetic are some of the adjectives used to describe Hidden Valley’s teacher of the year, Mrs. Sprenger. Deborah Sprenger, who has been a teacher for 25 years, is retiring this school year leaving her classroom to explore the world. She is adored by the students and staff at Hidden Valley for not only for her interactive teaching style but also her kind personality that Meribel Pan (11) says that “makes you want to become such a nice person.”
Students who have had her know her for her “Socratic style lectures” that make her class engaging. Pan shares that she “incorporates the class into the lessons” by having them as characters playing out historical situations. Her class also plays intense learning games such as Jeopardy and Vocabularo.
Shockingly, despite how amazing she is at it, Sprenger has not always been a teacher. She always aspired to teach but was pushed to pursue a different career since she was “too smart to be a teacher.” She ended up at law school and then in legal publishing but was eager to jump on a teaching offer at a charter school after she took some years off to stay home with her kids.
Mrs. Winterer, a fellow teacher in the social studies department, shares that Mrs. Sprenger “has a lot of background knowledge that she brings [to the classroom]” from her previous career as a lawyer. Sprenger’s background gives her a better foundation to give nuance to what she teaches. Worth Paisley (12) shares that she helped him grow as a student by helping him “improve his critical thinking skills.”
A lesser recognized but possibly more important aspect of Sprenger as a teacher is her sweet personality. Sprenger is an extremely humble and truly appreciates her students. She shares that she feels like “the second half of this year with her students all being so exited [for her]” has shown her that she has “come what she came to do” at Hidden Valley.
During retirement, Sprenger plans on traveling the world starting with Canada this June. After she is no longer at the school, Sprenger wants students remember to “work hard but also find ways to enjoy high school, build on your friendships, and determine what is important to you.”
Sprenger is an amazing teacher and person who will be missed at Hidden Valley next year. If you have a chance, go to her room, and wish her a retirement that is just as amazing as she is.