PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Morningside Community School second-grade teacher Carole Somerville has been selected as the February teacher of the month. 

 

The Teacher of the Month series, in collaboration with Berkshire Community College, will run for the next five months and will feature distinguished teachers nominated by community members. You can nominate a teacher here.

 

Somerville has been in the education sector for 15 years, transitioning from running her own daycare to becoming a paraprofessional and now a teacher.  

 

"I was always passionate about it. I had worked in finance because I could and I was good at it. I was a great bookkeeper. I worked in finance. It was great, but it wasn't fulfilling," she said. 

 

Somerville has always loved watching kids have epiphanies, even when she was babysitting in high school. 

 

So, when she had kids, she started working in the education sector again as a paraprofessional. 

 

"I truly believe that every kid can learn, and that's one of the reasons I love being here at Morningside. That's why I came here, is because every kid can learn, and they do.  It fills my heart, makes my life kind of complete," Somerville said. 

 

She recounted the time she worked with a student who was later diagnosed after she and his parents noticed changes in his behavior. 

 

"He was the sweetest kid ever. He still came to school every day, did his work every day. When he was diagnosed, he came via Zoom, because it was right at the end of the pandemic. He just had this infectious smile and this infectious desire to learn that made me realize this is my why," 

 

"That's why I come here, because I see these kids, and I could even give a parent a heads up on something they may not have noticed yet, and he was my why he still kept learning, no matter what." 

 

The reason she is a teacher was cemented in her after working with this student because he persevered and continued to love learning even after being diagnosed with a brain tumor during the pandemic. His photo still hangs in her classroom, she said. 

 

"It's really helped me focus on the importance of communicating with parents and having that team that you need to have with a student because I'm with them for five or six hours a day, and their parents are with them the rest of the time," Somerville said. 

 

"So if I see something, I can say something to them. If they see something, they can say something to me. It's super important to communicate with parents and talk about their child. And I tell every parent, and I tell every student when they come into my classroom, once you are my kid, you're always my kid." 

 

Somerville demonstrated how she currently has a student whose uncle was once her student. 

 

During her career, she has helped her students build confidence and resilience, further demonstrated by the class slogan, "We can do hard things." 

 

Affirmations such as this are also on display throughout her classroom and exclaimed by Somerville and her students.

 

She strives to encourage students not to fear mistakes; rather be excited about them because it is part of the learning process. 

 

"You just made the best mistake ever," Somerville will tell her students showing how the error is actually learning opportunities.

 

This is reinforced with another one of her slogans "If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you." 

 

Somerville emphasizes building relationships with the students and fostering a growth mindset. 

 

Second-grader Gloria DiGrigoli highlighted how she and Somerville have the same favorite color, pink, and how Somerville's favorite animal is a pig. 

 

"She just loves them, and they're almost everywhere in the room … it's basically really fun, and Somerville has lots of fun things and there's also yoga mats [for] when we do yoga time," DiGrigoli said. 

 

"[She] is an incredible teacher and an incredible person. She is kind and caring. She supports every one of her students. She takes time to get to know them, to know their strengths and to support them in building goals so that each student can learn and grow," Principal Nicole Shepardson said. 

 

DiGrigoli said that Somerville always cares about people and is a great teacher. 

 

Second-grader Aurora Winters said she loves Morningside Community School because of the "amazing teachers" who love all the kids, especially Shepardson and Somerville. 

 

"She only loves everyone as the same amount. She treats kids the same. It's like we're her own children," Winters said.

 

"She makes me feel she makes me feel ready and ready to start the day."

 

Somerville cares more about her students than she does herself, second-grader Ana Laura Silva said.