Joanne Creedon of Litchfield always knew she wanted to help people. And when the rigors of calculus turned her off to premed in college, she decided to follow her other passion: teaching. Now, after 25 years of teaching, this humble, dedicated teacher has been named Teacher of the Year in Torrington. Ms. Creedon, 53, has taught English as a Second Language (ESL) at the Forbes School for the last six years.

After her first three years of teaching, Ms. Creedon flew to Columbia to teach English to sixth graders. Among the Columbians, she was the minority. She had no family or friends for thousands of miles. I experienced what it is to be a stranger in a strange land,” Ms. Creedon said. “That’s where I really learned how important it is to reach out to people.” The year spent teaching Columbian children managed to spark new intrigue in her mind. Her students would come to her with questions that she didn’t know how to answer-questions like: “Why do adjectives come before the noun and not after?”
“It made me really think about the rules and patterns of this language,” Ms. Creedon said.

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