Long before Mary Beth Will started teaching 9th grade Western Civilization at Ludlow High School, she shared and expressed her love for music by first becoming a music teacher at East Street School all the way back in 1980, which only proves that she enjoys teaching, which she has been doing for nearly 35 years.

Sadly, Will cannot teach forever, and she is actually planning on retiring this year. Even though it is a sad time for her, she admits she will definitely not miss her alarm clock going off at 5:00 am , but she will miss seeing her “BFF” Mrs.Masse everyday, and her co-teacher Leah Cook. Although leaving her favorite co-workers won’t be easy, she is looking forward to babysitting her granddaughter Bianca, who is due around June 15. She is also looking forward to going to her son’s athletic games, and meeting her husband for lunch.

Throughout her many years of teaching, she has had some delightful experiences and some not so delightful experiences. Will says her favorite memory from her teaching career was when her friend Jay Dias, a graduate of Ludlow High School, composed an original composition for her fifth grade chorus at East Street School.  “The piece was entitled “A New Tomorrow.” Jay worked for Andrew Lloyd Webber as an assistant conductor for “Phantom of the Opera” in New York and then as a conductor for “Sunset Boulevard” in Germany.  He took time out to perform it with us with at East Street school for the fifth Grade Awards Night.  My fifth grade chorus did an outstanding job premiering this work,”  says Will.

Despite having many great memories as a teacher, she has also had some bad ones. “During my first fifteen years of teaching I received, a pink lay off slip every April.  Eventually I was rehired but it was demoralizing each time,” recalls Will.

But even that bad memory doesn’t diminish the excitement and funny things a new teaching day brings to her. “My funniest memory would be Mr. Woodman snorting loudly during an in service class.  Hysterical!” She also enjoys telling these stories to her class, because she believes laughter is a wonderful thing.

When Mrs.Will  isn’t touching up her hair or fixing her jewelry, she is always trying to make classes more exciting for her and her students. “Designing lessons is my favorite part of the job,” Will said. On the other hand, trying to keep her students engaged can get to be a handful, especially because times are changing now, and her students now don’t even compare to her students she had years ago. “I find that I have to incorporate different activities during each class period to keep the students engaged in learning.  Even still some students just shut down and do not try.”

“ Mrs. Will is a nice and caring teacher, and she always manages to make class fun for us,” says freshman Brianna Chabot. “ She also is really funny, which also makes history class more tolerable.”

She chose to teach ninth grade western civilization because  before she taught western civ., she taught music history, but they cut that position, so she went to another subject that still had history involved in it, so she chose western civilization. “To teach any other liberal arts subject you have to have a knowledge of history.  It seemed like a natural progression for me,” says Will. History and music isn’t the only thing she likes about school, she also loves hanging out and chatting with her co-workers.

Will said if she can describe her teaching career in one word it would be “L——–o——–n———-g.” But teaching isn’t the only thing she takes interest in, she also enjoys walking, playing the piano, reading the Bible, scrapbooking precious memories, and watching hockey while rooting for the L.A Kings.

Will has had a long journey throughout her many years of teaching, and is rather excited to retire, but of course will cherish the memories she has made at LHS.