PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Stearns Elementary School fourth-grade teacher Krista Harrington has been selected as the December Teacher of the Month. 

 

The Teacher of the Month series runs for the next five months in partnership with Berkshire Community College.

 

Harrington has been working in the education field for 10 years, starting out as a reading paraprofessional before turning to teaching two years later. 

 

"Krista has a very vast knowledge of literacy. Prior to her teaching career she was a reading paraprofessional so her depth of knowledge in terms of reading skills and how to get students up to grade level with their reading content knowledge is truly one of a kind," Stearns Principal Sara Luciani said. 

 

She has been a teacher for eight years and has ingrained herself in Stearns culture volunteering for after-school activities, including working as a coach for Battle of the Books for six years. 

 

Battle of the Books is a citywide competition in which elementary students compete by answering questions about the books that they have read as part of the extracurricular activity's reading list. 

 

"It is so much fun and I absolutely love being a coach. We always have a lot of students participate in the program from Stearns," Harrington said. 

 

Some of Harrington's fourth-grade students met her while participating in Battle of the Books. 

 

"I knew her when I did Battle of the Books last year. She was my coach and after that Battle of the Books I really wanted to be in her class and I got my wish. She is a wonderful teacher," fourth grader Alexandria Most said.

 

Positivity exudes Harrington throughout her classroom and school community, Luciani said. 

 

Students and co-workers remarked on Harrington's kind nature describing her as "wonderful," "fun" and knowledgeable. 

 

"I would say she's a very good teacher. She is very good at teaching strategies in simple ways that students can understand," fourth grader Otis Hunter Seth Rocha said. 

 

Luciani further demonstrated this adding that Harrington makes an effort to learn about each child individually. 

 

"Krista takes every student under her wing as if they were her own child. In fact, her own children did go here years ago, so I can say that, not just to say it," Luciani said. 

 

"...The beauty of what Krista does is she scaffolds so that every single child is able to meet her expectations at their level, so they're all able to feel successful. They're able to make mistakes and know that mistake making is part of learning and growing. She models that for students as well and she really does help each child meet their full potential within her classroom."

 

These remarks were echoed by co-teacher Kalie Garwood who said Harrington's "plethora of experience" has been "great to tap into and learn from."

 

"I've learned so much from her about the curriculum and just about how to interact with kids and things like that. It's been really great to watch and to learn from," Garwood said. 

 

Special education paraprofessional Cindy Deaso has worked with Harrington for two years and has really enjoyed working with her. 

 

"Krista is from heaven. She's really good with the kids. She's very understanding. She's very cool, calm collective. She explains things perfectly for the kids to learn in a better way. She's pretty awesome," she said. 

 

Harrington has always wanted to teach at Stearns so when the opportunity arose she was excited. She loved the building, community, and felt connected to the school just as much as her kids did, she said 

 

The welcoming environment that Harrington has come to love has been maintained as the school changes. 

 

"[Stearns is] a place that the students want to be at every day. You can feel it, you can see it as they're coming down the hallway in the morning, that they want to be here," Harrington said. 

 

"And that's on behalf of all the staff here and the teachers and all of the students. We've built this community that people just want to be a part of, and I think that's a great thing." 

 

Approximately three years ago, Stearns School adopted the inclusion model that places all students, including ones with disabilities, in "mainstream" classrooms so they can learn amongst their peers.  

 

There are three teachers per classroom collaborating and utilizing their individual skill sets to provide students the opportunity and tools to learn the material.

 

Depending on their skill level, students may access curriculum in a different way but everyone is working on the same type of material as their peers, Harrington said

 

"[For example,] right now we're doing division, everyone is doing division. Everyone is working on some type of division problem and really trying to strengthen their skills and to grow their skills, no matter what level they're at," she said. 

 

"... We work together in figuring out where the kids are at and where we want them to go academically and how are we going to get them there."

 

Prior to being a teacher, Harrington worked as a social worker for many years but was drawn to the teaching career. 

 

She had a desire to establish more meaningful bonds with the children she worked with. She found it challenging to do so as a social worker because her interactions with the kids were restricted to once or just a few instances each week.

 

She studied psychology at Westfield State earning her bachelor's degree in 1996. When she decided to change careers she attended Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, where she earned her master's in education in 2021. 

 

Although she is no longer a social worker, she still applies the skills developed during that career in the classroom.

 

Being an educator is much more than just teaching students curriculum; it is also about helping them develop and finding ways to help regulate emotions, interact with others, take chances, not be afraid of failure, and find ways to grow, Harrington said. 

 

Just like adults, kids enter the classroom each day bringing along their lives at home, she said. 

 

"I really do think so much of what we do in the schools is based on social emotional learning, and really just supporting the kids, which is things that I did as a social worker," Harrington said.