Weston Awards: Meet MHS English Teacher Anne Baney-Giampoala

This is the first in our series, spotlighting the winners of the 2025 Judy Weston Awards for Inspired Teaching. Follow along each week to learn more about the impact these educators are making in the Montclair Public Schools.

Montclair High School English teacher Anne Baney-Giampoala starts every class by reading a poem aloud. One of her nominators, Montclair High Senior Isabella Kuzyk, told the Weston Awards selection committee how special this was – and how fitting.  

“[Ms. Baney’s] class is like poetry. It utilizes reinforcement and repetition; is creative; and has rhythm, structure, and an emotional impact.” 

How’s that for an ode to one’s teaching?! But there’s more. 

A nominator said Ms. Baney was also an inspirational teacher for 9th grade English Honors during the pandemic. They wrote: “While our son loved to read, he did not enjoy writing, so it was surprising when he told us that Ms. Baney made English ‘interesting.’ Her style is approachable and her enthusiasm, contagious. While that school year was upended by Covid, Ms. Baney’s commitment to her students shone through in her online lessons.” 

Ms. Baney was praised for respecting students’ opinions, welcoming different points of view, encouraging personal reflection, pushing students to use precise wording, and helping them to find and express their own voices. 

A student said: “When we have group discussions [Ms. Baney’s] favorite thing to say to a student who thinks something they picked up in the text may be a reach is: ‘It is your job to reach.’ This is why I – someone who never spoke in English class before – speak all the time in Ms. Baney’s class.”

Ms. Baney, for instilling in your high school students a love of words, empowering them to express themselves, and for helping them REACH beyond what they think they’re capable of – you are an INSPIRED teacher. Congratulations.