IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Anne Smith

New at The Island School this year

Anne Smith may be new to The Island School, but she’s no stranger to the classroom – with 20 years of teaching experience, she’ll begin her first week on island this Monday, Aug. 4.

“I was in Sarasota County for 20 years,” Smith said. “My first five years, I was at Glenallen in North Port, and then I moved over to Englewood [Elementary]. And I came to Englewood because my husband went there, and he grew up here. He’s born and raised in Florida. So eventually I knew we all wanted to get back here, and I wanted my kids to go there. So that’s where I’ve been, same classroom for the last 14 years.”

She started out teaching second grade and then moved to fourth and fifth grades. She has been teaching fifth for the last 14 years and will be teaching fifth grade science at The Island School. 

TIS Head of School Christine Oliver used to work with Smith’s husband, and their sons graduated together, which is how she got connected with the school. 

“I always joked around with her,” Smith said. “I’d be like, ‘You better get me out there soon. If there’s ever anything that opens up, I’d love to come,’ and it just so happened that something became available this summer. And when she initially reached out, I was like, ‘But I love Englewood so much. I don’t know if I’m ready to leave.’ But the more I thought about it, I’m like, ‘I’ve always wanted to be here. Yes, I definitely want to do it.’”

The second part of Smith’s job will cover reading intervention and Multiple-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) coordination, which is an educational framework that gives targeted support to struggling students.

“So, Monday through Thursday I’ll be working with small groups of struggling readers,” she said. “I’ll also be helping with the MTSS process, which is meetings and getting things together for students who are struggling and have plans in place. Then on Fridays, I’ll be doing fifth grade science.”

Smith implemented some intervention and targeted support structure in her own classroom at Englewood Elementary, but she is looking forward to focusing on this aspect at a more comprehensive level.

“To be able to work with all the grade levels is really exciting to me,” she said. “And a few of us just got back from a Wilson Conference. Barbara Wilson, who I think has a place on the island, has this reading program that is specified toward students who have dyslexia. So, I’m getting certified to be able to be a Wilson-Certified teacher, which means that I am specialized in training to work with students with dyslexia. So that’s not anything I’ve ever done before. It was something new for me. It was super interesting.”

Smith also holds a Florida teaching certificate for Elementary K-6, with a reading endorsement for K-12. Additionally, she is Gifted- and ESOL- (English for Speaker of Other Languages) endorsed.

At Englewood Elementary she taught two class groups of about 24 and 25 students. Now class sizes will be even smaller at The Island School.

“I can’t wait to work with smaller groups and one-on-one,” she said. “Science is a new thing for me, so I’m super excited. I’ve been doing a lot of research over the summer. These last few years, [at Englewood] we departmentalized, and I was the ELA teacher, so I did the reading and the writing and a lot of the social studies. One of my best friends in the whole world taught next to me. She did all the science, so she’s going to team up with me and really help me with this. But a lot of the science is just the reading, the vocabulary, so a lot of the strategies from reading will fit into that. It’s just different content.”

Smith is originally from Grand Blanc, Michigan, outside of Flint. She graduated from Western Michigan University with a Bachelor of Science in elementary education and an emphasis in early childhood development. She always knew she wanted to be a teacher.

“When I was little I had a chalkboard in my basement. I would set up my chair, put my stuffed animals in my chairs, and my teachers always gave me the old teachers’ manuals and stuff,” she said. “I would come home, and I would do lessons for my stuffed animals. And if I had friends over, we’d all play. But I’ve been playing school forever. You can ask my mom, there was really nothing else I wanted to do.”

In 2005, she moved to Florida where she began working in Sarasota County.

“I moved down here when I graduated from Western,” Smith said. “There weren’t many teaching opportunities in Michigan at the time; there was a hiring freeze. I had run into a mutual friend that I had grown up with after I graduated, and we started talking, come to find out he was a teacher in Sarasota County. So, he said, ‘If there’s no jobs there, you should come check it out.’ So, I did, and he worked with my husband, so within the first couple days that I got down here, I met my husband, and once I saw the area, I’m like, ‘There’s no way I’m ever going back to Michigan.’”

She and her husband now live in Cape Haze and visit Gasparilla Island regularly. In fact, the couple got married on the beach at 19th Street in 2008.

“Ever since we started dating, that was kind of our spot,” she said. “So that’s where we go a lot. And then South Beach is our favorite.”

Anne’s husband, Steve, was previously the assistant principal at L.A. Ainger Middle School and this is the first year he will be starting as the head principal. Together, they have three kids. The youngest, Drew, is going off to college this fall to play baseball for the University of Fort Lauderdale.

The two older daughters are Carly, who lives in Bradenton and works for Capstan Financial Consulting Group, and Alyssa, who married her high school sweetheart, lives in Englewood and just had a baby in September.

This summer, in addition to spending time with her children and eight-month-old grandchild, Smith has been preparing for the quickly approaching school year. “The way that it works with fifth grade is it’s like, three part time positions, so there’s someone who does the reading, someone who does the math and then I do the science,” she said. “So, we all share a space, but when I’m not in the room teaching, that’s when I’m going to be working with the small group. I’m excited to step out of the one classroom and be able to work with a bunch of different grade levels.”

This August will mark the start of a new chapter in Smith’s teaching career, one she’s ready to take on with fresh responsibilities and a renewed focus.

“When you do the same thing for 20 years you get complacent,” she said. “I could have finished my career at Englewood Elementary and been super happy, but this has revitalized me a little bit. I was counting down the years until retirement, and now I feel like I’m just starting my career again.”

The Island School will be back in session Monday, Aug. 11, with a school open house from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 7.