QCEA Celebrates Retirees! Mary Ann Byatt

     As we wrap up the school year, since we can't celebrate in person, QCEA wants to virtually celebrate all of our retirees. We thank them for their years of dedication and service, and we wish them all the best in retirement! 

Name: Mary Ann Byatt

Current Assignment: Senior High School,  Math

Number of Years in Education: 35

Number of Years Teaching in Quakertown: 35

Which building(s) have you worked in? Only the high school. I actually did my student teaching here, too, so I have been in the district since January, 1985. When I finished my student teaching I subbed the remainder of that year and started full time that September.

What will you miss the most about teaching? The daily interactions with students both in my classroom and through activities. I was a class advisor for 10 different classes. I chaperoned over 25 senior trips to Walt Disney World. I attended sporting events and musicals and chaperones proms and dances. I got to know my students not only as students, but also as people. I have met so many amazing people through my job! I will miss meeting new students when each September rolls around.

What will you miss the least about teaching? Paperwork! Not ever feeling like I had a free weekend. Sundays were always spent planning. I got up at 4:30 a.m. every day, too, so friends and family never really understood my schedule and why I was reluctant to do anything during the week.

What is your happiest memory from your time in Quakertown? That is not a fair question. I have so many I could choose! If I need to pick, though, I’d say it was every time a student made a breakthrough and realized they could be successful in math. For some reason, a lot of students are afraid of math and think that they cannot be good at it. My happiest memories are of working with those students and seeing their faces light up when they finally understood and did well on an assessment. 

What advice do you have for teachers? Enjoy what you do. If you start to think of going to work each day as a job and not as your passion, then maybe it’s time to move on. Make a difference. Be a positive in each student’s life. For some, you may be the only positive voice they hear on a daily basis. Remember that you never know what a student is going through. Always choose to be kind.

What are your retirement plans? This will seem like a strange answer, but my retirement plan is not to have plans. For the last 35 years, I knew what I would be doing every day I woke up. I am looking forward to waking up each day and then deciding what that day was meant to be. I want to reinvent myself. I want to try new things and travel to new places. I will still work, but I will look forward to a job that won’t require paperwork at night and on the weekends. I want to volunteer and make a difference. And even though I am retiring from QCHS I won’t go AWOL. I will still be in the stands in alumni field, in the QPAC for music, and in the bleachers for wrestling matches. After all, “ Once a Panther, always a Panther!“

 

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