Norwich
Classroom layouts, activities between groups, effective lessons, run-ins outside of school, even reprimands directed toward youthful, experimental — often oblivious — students are still seared into the hearts and minds of adults now in their 30s, with years of perspective.
She called her students at Hartland Elementary School “can-do kids,” reiterating a classroom spirit of self-assurance, that her charges could do anything they wanted with hard work and dedication.
Chelsea Gray harnessed that power and chose — largely inspired by Acker — to follow in the footsteps of her first- and second-grade teacher.
“Without a doubt,” said Gray, now a pre-K teacher at the Dothan Brook School in Hartford. “I wanted to be exactly like her.”
Acker, a teacher of 36 years, 31 of them in Hartland, died of breast cancer, a disease that she had dealt with for the better part of 20 years, on Aug. 21, 2016, in her Norwich home. She was 69.
Family, colleagues and former students remember a warm, gentle person who was full of energy and almost always in good spirits.
And for those who had her in the classroom, Acker’s influence went deeper.
“She was the best teacher I ever had,” said Ellen Furnari, who had Acker for first and second grade at Hartland Elementary School. “Her students were, ‘can-do kids,’ Like, you can do anything. I think that’s absolutely true. We grew up to be lawyers, dancers, tattoo artists, so many amazing, different things.”
Rich Acker, Sandy’s husband of 47 years, said a deep love for teaching was fueled by a passion for children.
“She was the most giving person I ever met,” he said. “I think she helped a lot of the parents as well as the students. She had this great power. … She was at their level. She didn’t stand at the foot of the classroom and dictate. She had these little pods of learning, with different activities for different groups of kids. It wasn’t intimidating, it was a shared experience she had with them. At least, that’s what it felt like.”
Acker was born on July 31, 1947, in Bridgeport, Conn. and grew up in Waltham, Mass., with her three brothers.
She and Rich Acker were married on July 19, 1969, as she was completing her undergraduate studies at Framingham State Teacher’s College in suburban Boston.
She furthered her studies at Johnson State College throughout her career, receiving multiple master’s degrees.
It didn’t take Peter Richards long to realize that Acker had a special talent for connecting with young students. He hired her out of college to teach at U-36 in Corinth where Richards, now retired, was the principal.
“She made her classroom the kingdom of wisdom,” Richards said. “She had this love for kids, this ability to make them feel good. … I never saw a kid that didn’t like her.
“She was a phenomenal teacher,” he added. “She loved kids. That was the No. 1 thing. She was good with them. … She was one the best teachers I’ve ever known.”
When Richards was hired at Hartland Elementary School, he brought Acker along. It was there that Ginny White, working as a volunteer coordinator, first met Acker, a meeting that would turn into a friendship that would last decades.
“Sandy had a positive, uplifting perspective on life with children being central (to) our hope for the future,” said White, who now teaches kindergarten in Hartland. “She believed in each and every child that she had, and made him or her feel special, loved and capable. She made learning fun. More than that, she connected to their families. It became a bond that lasted through the years.”
Part of what made Acker such a successful teacher was her early integration of the multi-age classroom, which brought students from kindergarten, first and second grade together into one space. She was a powerful proponent of the multi-age learning experience, and White said she was the “driving force behind organizing the effort to bring the multi-age classroom offerings to Hartland.”
“I recall whenever we were introducing ourselves in a new setting, teachers would often say, ‘I teach second grade, I teach fourth grade,’ ” White added. “Sandy would always say, ‘I teach children in a kindergarten-first-second multiage setting.’ I think that was the key, the feeling Sandy had about teaching children, not content, as the priority.”
Acker kept parents and guardians involved in after-school activities and organized sit-downs for tea and coffee to discuss lesson plans and curriculums.
“She didn’t just teach kids in her class, but the whole family,” Rich Acker said. “She really loved the parents. I think she helped a lot of them become better parents as much as she taught her students.”
Acker dealt with several bouts of breast cancer. She was diagnosed and treated twice before it came back two years ago. It became clear, Rich Acker said, that the cancer had metastasized, and Acker began undergoing grueling treatments.
“She never complained,” Rich Acker said. “She lived with breast cancer, she didn’t fight it.”
During the summers, Acker would organize trips to the beach with students. From the outset, it was a way for students to connect with classmates. But over the years, it evolved into something of a reunion for all “can-do kids,” giving former students a chance to stay connected.
Furnari and Gray still call each other “can-do kids” and consider themselves deeply entrenched in the “can-do community.”
“The ‘can-do community’ was near and dear to her,” Gray said. “In part, it was a way to put a label on it. But it went deeper than that. Like, you can do anything. It’s how to be independent thinkers, a way to look at the world around you.
“Even when I got in trouble, she was so fair and so even. It was very diplomatic. It’s like you learned something from it. You never felt punished or in trouble, never felt ashamed. I just remember using that as a learning opportunity.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.