BORN TO TEACH

Noreen Harris paces the aisles of desks in her classroom at St. Mary’s-St. Alphonsus Regional Catholic School (SMSA) in Glens Falls. Holding her teaching book against her chest, Harris walks around to check on her students’ work. 

Her fourth graders are learning algebra this morning, and from their eager responses, the class is picking it up pretty quick. 
“Good job, I’m proud of you,” Harris coos to one student. For others, she encourages them to keep trying. “See if you can get it on your own,” she says. “Be creative.”

Harris walks around the classroom with a calm confidence that only comes from years of teaching. SMSA has been home to Harris for 36 years, out of her almost 50 years of teaching.

This year, Harris’ work as an educator was recognized with the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Distinguished Elementary School Teacher Award. The award, given annually by the Diocese of Albany Catholic Schools, honors a Catholic school teacher who has promoted a school’s Catholic educational vision, carries a strong awareness of a school’s Catholic identity and mission, and demonstrates teaching skills that have a positive impact on the moral growth of students. 

“It was really sweet,” Harris said. Patty Balmer, principal of SMSA, called a general assembly a few weeks back for the award announcement. Nobody knew what the assembly was for, including Harris. 

“I’m all ready to take a picture of whatever (this announcement) is,” she recounted. Then, Balmer “is describing an award for a teacher, and then I hear people shouting my name — namely my class — then I realized it was me!”

It comes as no surprise that Harris would be awarded for her teaching. Ever since she was 8 years old, she knew she would become a teacher. In elementary school, Harris recalled spending her school days looking into other classrooms and wondering what grade she would end up teaching. 

“It was just a mission, a calling, I can’t even explain it,” she said “It wasn’t even a question, it was just I wonder where I’m gonna be and I wonder what grade I’m going to have. Because I enjoyed school, and I had teachers and nuns who gave me responsibility.” 

Born and raised in the Bronx, Harris and her two siblings were all educated in the Catholic school system. School and learning were never a chore for Harris, it was something she loved. During recess, Harris would stay inside to help students with their homework. In fifth grade, she was the bus monitor and helped keep attendance for students riding home. The extra responsibility set a love for Catholic schooling in her heart at a young age. 

“Those kinds of responsibilities a teacher would give me would make me feel so much more engaged,” she said.
Harris went on to get her bachelor’s in elementary education from Iona College in New Rochelle. After graduating in 1976, Harris taught for a year at St. John Vianney School in the Bronx before going back for her master’s in early childhood education from the College of New Rochelle. 

Over the next 10 years, Harris taught at Catholic and public schools across the Bronx. While both experiences were fun, Catholic schooling always felt like home.

“(Public school) is great but it’s different because (at Catholic schools) we have a mission … and our mission is really clear: the faith is our mission,” she said. “And I love that you can work that into everything you do. It’s just a very easy fit for everyone because it’s things that you would be feeling anyways, but you can talk about it a little more deeply.”

In the late 1980s, Harris started looking into the Glens Falls area when her husband wanted to move north of the city. One summer day, the two were visiting upstate New York on vacation when they spotted the stained glass window display at SMSA school. 

“It was a Tuesday in July and we were eating ice cream in baseball caps, and we’re like let’s go look at the stained glass,” Harris and her husband assumed the window was a part of a church. Turns out it was a school and the principal was hiring.

“Next thing I know I have a job here!” she laughed. “I was on vacation with my family but also looking around. I found out later that it was bingo night, otherwise, the school would not have been open. It was just happenstance.”

Almost 40 years later and Harris hasn’t left, and it’s something she doesn’t plan to do anytime soon. Her students, the faculty and the parents at SMSA are like a family to her.

“I was just meant to come here. I don’t know how else to say it,” she said. “It was just like a magnet.”

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