Monica Zaremba got cut from her volleyball team in her freshman year of high school.
“I really wanted to be a volleyball player,” Zaremba said, “but after I got cut, a cross-country coach encouraged me to run with the team that summer, and one thing led to another.
“The running community is a real supportive community. It was kind of something to be good at, when the rest of life was kind of hard. To have something successful was huge for me as a person.”
Zaremba said running worked well as a stress-relief and coping mechanism.
“I was OK at it, good enough to have a little success,” she said. “I never won any state titles or anything, but I ran outdoor track for a year in college. But then I had the opportunity to study abroad in Italy, and I chose Italy over Ohio.”
Zaremba graduated from Carmel High School in Chicago in 1998, running cross country and track year-round. She said it was incredibly supportive to have the same coaches and be with the core group of runners.
“When I was in high school, I had a series of teachers and coaches that were really supportive of me,” Zaremba said. “They pushed me in a safe way. They were there for us.
“My family went through a lot when we were in high school, and the school and the community became a reliable, safe place in which I felt comfortable and successful. It really inspired me to be a teacher, to do that in my life and to be a part of a similar community.”
Zaremba said that over the span of her freshman and junior year, two of her siblings died. She said she had many teachers who reached out to her and shared some of their personal experiences with loss.
“I knew at any time, even if I was just having a bad day, I could raise my hand and leave class and speak to the school counselor if I needed,” she said. “Knowing that I had that option was huge.”
Zaremba, who teaches Algebra 1 and 2 at Benton Junior High School, was selected as this year’s District Teacher of the Year.
“It is incredible, flattering and humbling, and it means a lot,” Zaremba said. “Teachers work so hard, and I work with so many incredible teachers, so I was really surprised and taken aback by [the honor].
“I was just so humbled and flattered.”
Running is something Zaremba continues to this day. Her most recent race was in April, when she competed in the Boston Marathon.
“That was amazing, and I had a great time doing it,” Zaremba said. “This year was one of my favorite times because I ran a personal best. Makes it a little more fun when you do well — it was good to see all the hard work pay off because sometimes it doesn’t go that way.”
“She is extremely passionate, and it is evident that she is here for the kids,” Benton Junior High Principal Chad Pitts said. “She constantly goes above and beyond for them.
“She goes out of the way for not only her students, but any students in these schools.”
Pitts said he can remember a particular time, one morning, when Zaremba was talking to a student in the hallway before school started. He said he asked Zaremba what was going on or who the kid was, and she said, “I am not real sure of his name, but he just looked like he needed to talk.”
“She gave that something he needed in that moment,” Pitts said. “Her mindset is, these are all our kids, and all of the kids — not just the ones in her class — who go to Benton Junior High are important.”
Zaremba graduated from the University of Dayton in Ohio in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education, and she earned a master’s degree in education in 2005 from National Louis University in Chicago. She said that when her family moved to Benton, she took some time off from teaching to be a stay-at-home mom.
“I actually got to first experience Benton as a parent,” Zaremba said. “My kids are all in Benton schools, and it is much like the community I grew up in. … I just had an amazing experience with my own kids, and after taking a little time off to be with the boys, I always wanted to get back into the classroom.”
Zaremba and her husband, Jerome, have three boys: Jerome, 11, Charlie, 9, and James, 8. She said she was attracted to Benton because of all that same support she experienced as a child growing up in the suburbs north of Chicago.
“Midway through the school year in 2015-16, the opportunity to apply and get back into teaching came available, and I love it here. It is amazing. I love the Benton School District,” she said.
“Mrs. Zaremba is a master at developing positive and productive relationships with everyone,” said Mike Skelton, superintendent of the Benton School District. “She is a dedicated educator who works tirelessly to engage students and spends extra time helping [them develop] their talents and is extremely encouraging.
“The Benton School District is very fortunate to have Mrs. Zaremba as an employee, and we are very pleased to have her representing us as our 2019 Teacher of the Year.”
Kim Piper, a math teacher at the junior high, encouraged Zaremba to apply for the position. She was the one to recommend Zaremba for the school’s Teacher of the Year title.
“Monica is great with kids and has a big heart,” Piper said. “She is very professional and carries herself in a professional manner. Knowing her personally, I knew she would be a good fit for the job.”
Piper said the junior high’s motto is to engage every mind, learn together and improve every day. And she said Zaremba embodies that motto.
“She goes above and beyond. … I feel like I am a better teacher. She encourages me to reflect on myself as a teacher and make sure our students can learn the concepts, and as far as improving every day, that’s the part she embodies the most, because we are constantly improving our teaching methods every day as well,” Piper said.
“Math was great for me, especially in [high school], because there is always a solution to it,” Zaremba said.
“There are a variety of solving strategies, as long as we can write an answer to prove it. That kind of clarity and kind of logic — it just really appealed to me,” she said.
“Some kids come in, and they love math. But more often than not, they are not good at math, or they hate math, or they say they lack some kind of math gene — which is not a real thing,” Zaremba said.
“I believe that everyone can be good at math, but it is definitely a challenge because we are focused on solutions and the answers. And too heavy of a focus on that makes kids make mistakes,” she said.
“I’m trying to cultivate an atmosphere where it is OK to struggle, to make a mistake and to fail. Really, I just try to challenge kids in believing mistakes are OK, and productive struggle is OK,” Zaremba said.
“Monica is really good at determining when it is time to push forward with the concepts and when to slow down and make sure the kids are getting what they need as well,” Pitts said. “I have never felt like she wasn’t prepared for the day, and that goes back to her passion and putting in the work.
“She is going to have the best lesson ready for her kids, and she is really good at knowing her kids and what makes them tick and what motivates them. Once you figure that out, it is a lot easier for any teacher to relate any subject matter to students.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.