Delmar graduate Ashley Bennett, a math and algebra teacher at Delmar Middle School, wasn’t sure what she wanted to do for a living until she got to college. Now she is teaching something she was always good at in school, math, at her alma mater. Bennett is also representing the school as the district’s teacher of the year. The state teacher of the year will be announced at the banquet on Oct. 15.
“Sometimes when I think about it, it’s surreal,” Bennett said of being the Delmar Middle School and district teacher of the year. “I’m in the same classroom I learned things in.”
Bennett, now in her seventh year of teaching, is teaching students who are children of people she grew up with in Delmar. When she was in high school she loved sports and thought about becoming a physical therapist or athletic trainer. After taking anatomy in high school, she decided those fields were not for her.
Eighth grade math teacher Ashley Bennett is representing the Delmar School District and Delmar Middle School, where she went to school, as she vies to become the state teacher of the year. Photo by Mike McClure
She played softball at Delaware State University before transferring to Wilmington University. The education major went on to get her masters degree online two years after graduating from the school.
Bennett, an only child, didn’t want to go to school too far from home where parents David and Annette live. She returned to Delmar the winter after graduating college. She served as a long term sub at Delmar, but there were no openings at the school over the summer. Bennett was hired to teach at Salisbury Middle School, but Delmar’s eighth grade math teacher left five days before the start of school in 2017 and she was offered a job at her alma mater. She started the same day as last year’s district teacher of the year Lauren Webster, also a Delmar grad.
“In 20 some years when I retire I can say I taught all 30 years in a school where I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” said Bennett. “We were all sitting here (in the school) together and now I’m teaching my friends’ kids.”
Bennett said she wasn’t sure teaching was for her the first couple years. Over the years she saw what teachers had to do, something she never noticed as a student.
“I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m in front of 100 students a day. I just be myself and they eat it up,” she said. “I’m where I want to be, where I’m meant to be.”
In addition to teaching, Bennett coaches softball and basketball at the middle school.
“I feel like teachers don’t get enough credit for making this town continue to go with all the tradition that we have,” Bennett added.
She is thankful for the love she has received from her fellow teachers and the town’s residents. She receives a lot of support from her colleagues and can call on them any time she needs help.
“Everyone here is so welcoming and so encouraging,” said Bennett. “It’s like we’re all a family.”
The process for becoming a school, district, and possibly state teacher of the year is extensive. Students and teachers vote, then applicants fill out a form with background information followed by two essay questions. Teachers are also observed in their classrooms. The state process involves an application, information about the teacher and school, five essay questions, three letters of recommendation, and a resume. Class observation and a video is also required.
“You never really understand it until you do it yourself,” Bennett said of the process. “It never leaves your mind until you complete it.”
In addition to the support she has received from her teachers and the community, Ashley is also thankful for her parents’ support.
“I think they’re more excited than I am. I don’t know what I’d do without them,” said Bennett. “I wouldn’t be here without them.”
Editor’s note- This is the first in a series of stories on the local teachers of the year.
