“She’s an awesome teacher. She is Pesta the Besta,” student Margaret Seaman said.
Former and current students share this sentiment; biology teacher Mrs. Pesta is dedicated to giving the best learning experience to every student who walks through her door. Not only has Pesta won the hearts of many through her kindness and entertaining personality, the community celebrated her as the winner of a Super Bowl trip. This contest was voted on by the community and sponsored by the Cleveland Browns, who had the honor of surprising Mrs. Pesta with the big news.
“I was very excited and surprised,” Pesta said. “The science staff here is outstanding and it could have been any of us. It could have been anyone in all of Northeast Ohio and they picked me.”
Digging deeper, Pesta was selected to win the Super Bowl trip because of her unwavering dedication. She is focused on each student’s success and delights in the moments when students experience success, including success after high school. Pesta is passionate about continuing academics and life success after high school for all her students.
“What’s most rewarding is seeing them happy in class and having them achieve,” Pesta said. “Also seeing what they’re able to do after they graduate and how successful they become.”
In addition to her commitment to each student, Pesta values the feedback of her teaching and works to improve her methods to make each lesson understandable. Being able to adapt to feedback shows her diligence in ensuring the success of each student and broadening their understanding of biology.
“They teach me how they learn best, and they also teach me what works and what doesn’t work,” Pesta said.
Students notice Mrs. Pesta’s teaching style and how she cares about making learning fun and science understandable.
“She did a lot of visual examples [slide presentations, videos, and handouts] and made sure we knew it before we moved on,” junior Nate Lardi said. “For the dissection labs, we made paper cutouts [frog, worm, crayfish] before we did the dissection which is kind of cool.”
Students also value Mrs. Pesta’s patience. She devotes ample time to making sure each student feels comfortable with the material taught in class.
“She was very encouraging and nice,” Seaman said. “If you’re like, oh, I don’t think this is right, she’d say try it again.”
Mrs. Pesta takes pride in the moments when a student figures out the material and everything clicks together.
“The success to me, while I’m teaching, is to see when the kid’s light bulb goes on when they finally get something and they’re excited about it,” Pesta said.
In doing so, students feel more confident in the material and find her class understandable.
“She made me feel smart and the class wasn’t hard because she made it easy to understand,” Lardi said.
Valuing a personal connection with each student in her class, Pesta cares about and takes the time to interact with each student showing that she notices them. Mrs. Pesta understands that it’s not just about learning but investing in a connection that contributes to a student’s overall experience.
“You have to talk to your students,” Pesta said. “You have to figure out a way to just say hi to them … .What I do is I hand out papers individually … so I can say something to everybody. It takes a little bit of time, but that’s how I get to know everyone.”
Being selected to go to the Super Bowl is a big deal to Mrs. Pesta, but she reminds students to keep an open mind to endless possibilities and follow their path. She encourages students to embrace their journeys and individuality, leading to great success in life. This is why Mrs. Pesta is being celebrated on winning the Super Bowl trip by a community full of admirers.
“Keep as many opportunities as you can open, don’t limit yourself, learn about yourself so you know what you like, and then pursue that,” Pesta said. “Don’t limit yourself to what society thinks you should be doing, or what you should be doing at this place in your life.”
