Scientist Suzie, Viking Vicky, Explorer Eve, Knight Nancy.
These names sound like children’s book characters, but they are all played by Suzanne Crowley, a fifth-grade teacher at Sanborn Elementary School.
At the front of her classroom stands a big closet, decorated with colorful paintings and handicrafts. Crowley calls it her “time machine.” When she steps out of the closet to teach, she changes into a character sporting a unique costume.
“She’s very creative and funny,” said Adya Nainwal, a student in Crowley’s class.
Science and social studies are not just subjects for Crowley’s classes. They are immersive adventures, and a key reason she was named the Andover Educator of the Year in 2024. Nominating by teachers, school administrators and parents, Crowley became the first teacher at Sanborn to receive this award.
(South Elementary School music teacher Julie Diehl has been named the 2025 Educator of the year. Diehl will be honored at the 2025 Citizens Who Care, Educator & Student of the Year Gala on Thursday, May 8. The event will start at 5:30 pm at the Andover Country Club.)
This story was published as part of a collaboration between Andover News and the Department of Journalism in Boston University’s College of Communication. The student journalist is a member of Professor Meghan E. Irons’s Reporting in Depth class.
Originally from Burlington, Mass., Crowley said she knew from an early age that she wanted to be a teacher. “I had two goals in my life: One to be a mother, and the other being a teacher,” she said.
Crowley went on to graduate from Boston College in 1985, and taught in East Boston for several years. She took time off to raise her two daughters, and in 2001 got the opportunity to teach at Sanborn Elementary.
Even after more than 30 years in the classroom, Crowley said she still enjoys every moment with her students. “I truly feel connected to all the students, and it’s pure joy for me to just watch them blossom,” Crowley said.
Crowley said she believes that teaching should be engaging.
In science class, students practice note sketching, a technique that combines note-taking with sketching diagrams of experiments. In history, they craft a wall of paper cranes after reading a World War II novel Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. In English, they work on a portfolio called Museum of Me, where they learn typing and expressing their personal stories with books they read.
Writing is mandatory every day in her classes. At the beginning of the year, some students felt overwhelmed and refused to write on a daily basis. “So what I do is, I become their scribe,” Crowley said.
In the fall, she took her students on a hike in the woods, teaching them how to describe the vibrant foliage. When they returned to class, students transformed their observations into poetry.
“I wasn’t that good at writing when I came in, but she made me a lot better at writing,” said Tessa Connors, another fifth-grader. “She somehow teaches that it can be so fun, but you can still learn so much.”
Under her guidance, students have practiced poetry, historical perspective writing and literature reflection. They’ve written a science fiction novel.
Crowley said she notices that some students today struggle with a range of emotional issues, and she strives to make them feel safe, comfortable and confident.
“They are emotionally not resilient; they’re worried; they’re anxious,” Crowley said. “When they enter my room, I shake their hands every morning because I want to gauge how they are doing. I can tell by their eyes if they feel tucked out or if they feel like they’re dragging, so I can gauge if I need to have an immediate conversation with that person throughout the day.”
Crowley recalled receiving a bunch of tree stumps from a lumber company during the pandemic. She turned them into an outdoor classroom and on Friday afternoons her students would sit in a circle on the stumps, with one person in the center.
Each would take turns saying something positive about the student in the middle, and in the end, that person has all the positive energy of what all their peers said.
“Last year, everybody was fighting. It was total chaos, and now everybody’s friendly with each other.” said Affan Mohammed, another student.
Deborah Morrison, the school’s administrative assistant, said Crowley is as much fun today as she was on her first day of teaching.
“I’ve known her for a long time,’’ Morrison said, “and she still has the enthusiasm for it.”
Crowley said she’s more than the students’ teacher.
“I’m teaching life,” she said.