Great teachers aren’t often remembered for what they taught, but for their ability to make students feel capable. With Christine Pianalto, McPherson High School’s chemistry teacher, it led her to be the teacher of the year.
Starting out in Connecticut, Pianalto has always enjoyed learning, with Chemistry standing out like a calling. The subject was familiar since both of her parents were chemists, and chemistry soon became something for her to pursue.
After graduating from Kansas State, as did her parents, she went on to be a professional food chemist. While she enjoyed the job itself, her real favorite part was the interaction with local schools. Whether it be judging science fairs or mentoring chemistry teachers. From the start, she loved the explaining and the help she could provide others.
That’s what drew her back to the classroom after five years of being a chemist.
The transition wasn’t easy. She taught during the day, only to come home at night and take her own educator courses as she adjusted. Despite this, it was hardly a hindrance.
“Teaching felt like something I should have been doing all along,” Pianalto described.
Only five years into her teaching career, she was nominated for the teacher of the year, going on to compete at a state level.
The process required a number of things from her, like obtaining letters of recommendation, describing a key lesson that has defined her teaching, a contribution she made to the high school as a whole, and even what she would say if she were a spokesperson for Kansas teachers.
Still, she managed these.
The nomination wasn’t seen as an end goal or stopping point, but instead as motivation. It pushed her to live up to the title and responsibility it gave.
Pianalto honors the position by constantly searching for ways to improve her classroom. She does this by creating new, engaging lessons and reinventing old ones to improve them.
One lesson being the Adopt an Element project, where students get assigned an element and work together to create a full periodic table. In that same project, which Pianalto completed herself in high school, is where she discovered her favorite element: tungsten, which is known for its adaptability and resilience, much reflecting Pianalto herself.
She credits her own high school chemistry teacher as her main inspiration, saying it’d be amazing to even be half as great as she was.
Pianalto hopes her students leave her class with the belief they can do even the most insuperable things, like chemistry. She aims to show students how the often hard subject can be approachable and meaningful.
Her dedication to students isn’t just in the classroom. She also coaches volleyball, promoting effort, and adding on another mentoring position to her resume.
As she reflected on her past, she said she’d tell herself to slow down since grades aren’t all that matter. What matters most is really the effort you put in.
