Teacher of the Year

Patricia Pettit

Teacher of Multilingual Learners (TESOL)
Southington High School
2024-2025

The Southington Public School District is proud to announce that Patricia Pettit, a Teacher of Multilingual Learners (TESOL), at Southington High School (SHS) has been chosen as the 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year. Chris Palmieri, Teacher of the Year Program Coordinator, stated “although the decision was extremely difficult because we have such amazing teachers in our district, Mrs. Pettit stood out this year.” Patricia will be recognized at the 2024-2025 Staff Convocation in August. Also, she will be recognized at a reception prior to a Board of Education meeting in September at the Municipal Center.
Mrs. Pettit has been teaching in Southington since August 25, 2003 when she was hired as a Language Arts Teacher at Kennedy Middle School. She then transferred to Southington High School as an English Teacher on January 27, 2014. She continued in that role until March of 2023 when she began as an interim TESOL teacher for the school district. Beginning on August 28, 2023 she became a permanent TESOL teacher at Southington High School.
Mrs. Pettit received her Bachelor of Science in English from Central CT State University in 1993. She earned her Master’s Degree from the University of New Haven in 2003 and her 6th year in Educational Leadership from Quinnipiac University in 2018. Most recently, she completed her Alternate Route to Certification for Teachers of English Learners from ACES in June 2023.
Patricia readily volunteers for committees and activities. She currently serves on SHS’s emotional intelligence committee and is the class advisor for the sophomore class, a position she will continue in next year as she and her students move on to their junior year. She served for almost ten years as a team leader within SHS’s Freshman Academy, has worked as a SRBI committee member at SHS, and was an intervention teacher in SHS’s after-school Learning Academy. Mrs. Pettit was also an advisor for Kennedy Middle School’s newspaper and scrapbooking clubs and taught Middle School Language Arts for Southington’s summer school for many years.
Mrs. Pettit describes her educational philosophy as “creating a supportive and compassionate learning environment that grows resilient, motivated and skilled lifelong learners. This starts by establishing strong and productive connections between teachers and students and their families to generate a whole-child, positive learning culture.” She shared that now, as a TESOL teacher, she has the unique opportunity to support teachers and her students by providing them the resources they need to be successful.