Teacher Spotlight: Media-Providence Friends School's Angela DiMaria

Media Patch is offering a feature called Teacher Spotlight where we will feature a local teacher who deserves recognization. Teachers give a lot to their students, schools and studies and we'd like to recognize them and say a simple, thank you, for all that they do.

This Media-Providence Friends School teacher lost a researching job but that life change propelled her into the teaching field and she realized it was her calling. She's been in the classroom ever since.

Teacher: Anglea DiMaria

School:

Grade/Subject: 4th and 5th grades mixed language arts, math and social studies

Years in the Industry: 10 years total, all at Media-Providence Friends

Teaching History:

DiMaria has taught her entire professional career at Media-Providence Friends. But she taught at a Massachusetts public school while in a graduate program there. She attended Wheelock College in Massachusetts.  

What do you like most about your job:

DiMaria says that the kids bring you back every year and every day. It's exciting to watch them be challenged and then meet that challenge and you supported them through it. It's a lot of hard work but fun at the same time, she says.

Why did you become a teacher:

DiMaria had a job as a social researcher and thought it was her life's career until the program lost its funding and she lost her job. Her former boss told her about an after-school program that needed help and she needed a job, so she applied. She said within a few months of being there she knew she wanted to be a teacher.

"I looked forward to going to work every day," DiMaria says.

She says she had no intention of teaching before that but realized teaching is more fun and challenging than she first thought.

What do you like best about your current school:

"My fellow faculty are the best teachers I know," she says.

DiMaria says she learns from them and they learn from her, it's a two-way street.

She says the students are also expected to bring "their whole selves" to the classroom. The teachers are not just handed a book at the beginning of the year and told to teach, DiMaria says, they have freedom and creativity to reach their students.

Check out a video here on the Media-Providence Friends website where DiMaria talks about the school.