By Ava DeFino, NHS Member

Ms. Ryder is a physics teacher at Fair Lawn High School, teaching various grade levels throughout the day. She is extremely devoted to helping her students and making connections with them, all while creating a family atmosphere in her classroom. 

In high school, Ms. Ryder knew she wanted to be a teacher but upon taking a physics class she realized that she wanted to teach physics. She says, “I actually applied to college as a math teacher first and then in my senior year of high school, I took physics and it seemed like math, but with a purpose.” This realization caused her to switch her major before even arriving at college. 

Growing up in Colorado, she finds a very tight-knit community in Fair Lawn with many of her fellow teachers having gone to Fair Lawn themselves. This is not the only thing that sets her apart from other teachers, though. Ms. Ryder is a color guard coach for the Fair Lawn High School Marching Band during the summer months and her spare time after school. This is where she spends most of her summer breaks along with visiting her parents in both Pennsylvania and Washington. 

As a teacher, she finds interactions and connections with her students to be the most rewarding part of her job. When talking about her favorite parts of being a teacher, Ms. Ryder says, “The best thing about being a teacher is sitting around chatting with people and interacting all day with people.” She jokes about this in relation to her astrological sign, Leo, saying that maybe she simply enjoys the attention, despite not knowing much about astrology and only learning her signs from her students. 

Since she teaches throughout the day, she gets to see the difference between her morning and afternoon classes. She maintains that her 7th period class is her most attentive and loud, using their energy in a productive way. 

Overall, Ms. Ryder is a perfect example of a teacher loving her students and having a desire to teach them more and more each day.