The lead teacher of the Health Sciences Academy at Mercy has been named the 2021-2022 Springfield Public Schools Teacher of the Year.
Dr. Amanda Adams was named to the honor during the Springfield Public Schools Celebrate SPS event Monday. Adams was selected from the other four finalists: Melanie Donnell (York Elementary), Dr. Bob Lynch (Glendale High School), Terri Schaffitzel (Pleasant View Elementary), and Cary Sikes (Gray Elementary).
The Health Sciences Academy is an SPS Choice program for eighth grade students. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the school was suspended for this school year, so Adams stepped into a role as a teacher with the SPS Choice program, Greater Ozarks Center for Advanced and Professional Studies (GO CAPS.)
“My proudest moment as an educator is when students come back and share how what they experienced in my classroom has made an impact on their lives,” Adams said. “As I interviewed former students as part of my doctorate work, one student shared that as an adult he thought back to when he was happiest and he returned to what he enjoyed as a student and pursued a career as an EMT.”
Adams began her career at SPS as an eighth-grade science teacher at Pershing Middle School in 2008. She left Pershing in 2013 to become lead teacher at the Health Sciences Academy. She was accepted into SPS’s leadership building program in 2017, and completed her doctorate degree in Educational Leadership, Curriculum, and Instruction in March 2021.