Cornwall’s Mike Flannery is honored
Mike Flannery, a mathematics teacher at Cornwall High School, applied to become a Master Teacher prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it wasn’t until earlier this year that he received an e-mail announcing his acceptance. He was one of 25 teachers, from the Mid-Hudson region, to be selected.
“It was a long time coming,” Flannery said. “It was a long period of unknown, whether I was going to make the cut or not, but I’m pretty darn happy with it.”
To be eligible to be a Master Teacher, one must be a full-time teacher in New York and teach one of the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) courses. Along with the application, entrants must submit evidence of their teaching ability by writing about experiences involving students and the community, as well as what they do in the classroom on a daily basis to go above and beyond.
Those who make the cut are then interviewed by a panel of college professors and Master Teachers. Applicants must also present a lesson on a topic they don’t normally teach – something more in line with their interests. Flannery gave a lesson on spaghetti models and how they relate to hurricane predictions.
From there, it was up to the panel to decide who to accept into the fellowship. Flannery hadn’t expected to wait two years, but then again, the veteran teacher wasn’t in any rush.
Flannery earned his undergraduate degree from SUNY Oneonta and his masters in math education from SUNY New Paltz. He started his career, in 1983, as a teacher at James I. O’Neill High School. He taught there for six years before accepting a job opportunity as an estimator and project manager for an electrical contracting firm.
“If I didn’t try it, I would never know,” he said. “It was very enjoyable, but I missed teaching.”
Flannery returned to the classroom, this time at Cornwall High School, where he has spent the bulk of his 33-year career.
Fellow math teacher and Master Teacher Cynthia Klein had, for years, encouraged Flannery to apply to become a Master Teacher, but the timing was never right.
“It is time consuming, so I had to find a time in my life when things slowed down,” he said. After getting my kids settled with their education, I felt I had the time to do it and my personal life to spend on it.”
Master Teachers are required to fulfill 50 hours a year of continued learning or continued teaching outside the classroom. Flannery said the idea is to grow one’s knowledge on things they can bring to the classroom that they don’t already bring.
As math teacher, and head of the department for the last five or six years, Flannery has taught every course offered, but he currently teaches advanced placement courses in statistics and pre-calculus.
Despite a career spanning over three decades, Flannery continues to enjoy teaching because everyday is different. He can prepare lessons, but what he can’t anticipate is the unknown factor – what the kids will bring to the classroom discussion.
“Early in my career I might not have been as comfortable with getting off course on the lesson for fear of not bringing it back to what the end goal was, but now I enjoy getting a little off course because I’m confident I can get it back to where it needs to be and make up for any lost time.”
