WITN's Teacher of the Week: Anna Chance of South Creek Middle School

Anna Chance is a career status teacher who is currently teaching 7th grade Social Studies at South Creek Middle in Martin County.

She has been in the teaching profession for 29 years, thirteen of which have been at Jamesville Elementary in Martin County. She enjoys making a positive difference in the lives of her students. Anna graduated from East Carolina University with a B. S. degree in Intermediate Education in 1986. In 2009 she earned a master’s degree in Education Administration from Grand Canyon University. She is highly qualified based on North Carolina licensing test and coursework to teach all levels of students. She has certifications in intermediate grades 4-6 and elementary education grades K-6. She also has certifications in Reading grades K-12, and Middle School Social Studies, Science, Math, and Language Arts (6-9).

She has served as “Teacher of the Year” three times in her teaching career at Roanoke Middle School twice and South Creek Middle School once. This is an annual award that is received through a secret ballot by all teachers from that school. Anna has taught many grade levels over the course of her career in Martin County. She has taught 4th through 8th grade at Jamesville Elementary and 6th through 8th grade at South Creek Elementary. She has served as one of the many School Improvement Leaders of each school. She has been appointed as a mentor for many new teachers. Anna was AVID coordinator at the South Creek Middle School for the 7 years it was funded. As the Avid coordinator, the school had its first school and community Health Fair, Career Day and Community Leaders Banquet. Anna is a long time member of the National Education Association (NEA) as well as the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE). Anna is also a dedicated member of the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Hamilton, North Carolina. She works whole-heartedly in the choir as one of the directresses and singers. In addition Anna tries to help the students in her church by providing tutoring services at her church whenever needed. Anna also enjoys decorating and working in floristry. Her husband, Samuel Chance, is the pastor of the Olive Branch Missionary Baptist Church where she also sings in the youth and senior choir and leads in the youth and women’s ministry there. Through the Women’s Ministry, baby blankets are crocheted for Vidant Children’s Hospital in Greenville. Anna is also a member of Crusade for Souls Outreach Ministries where they sponsor tent crusades in different cities and help those in need of spiritual and physical assistance throughout the year. Anna is president of the Ministers’ Wives and Deaconess Union in the Middle Ground Association, where she and others intercede for, train, encourage, and support one another.

The person who nominated Chance said, “When you walk in her room you can just feel the presence of a motherly teacher! She is my social studies teacher! She loves to teach us about different kinds of wars as: The Cold War, she often tells us that it didn't have anything to do with the temperature as Mr. Jim Howard would think… She is just an AWESOME TEACHER!”

Another person who nominated her said, “She really teaches social studies another way, like she does games and group work to help us understand what we are learning and we love her.”