Math teacher, Ms. Anne Truitt, is retiring at the end of this year after 17 years of teaching.

Ms. Truitt has been at OHS since the school first opened, but originally taught sixth grade math at Ballenger Creek Middle School. She says the way she has taught math has changed over the course of her career with the switch from middle school to high school. In middle school, she explains, there was “no discovery”, meaning that the focus was on drilling the basic math skills. There is more discovery in high school, where students try to figure things out on their own more.

The 17 years she taught have not been consecutive. Ms.Truitt began her teaching career, then took a few years off to raise her children, then returned to teaching. Though the classes she taught have varied, Mrs. Truitt’s favorite class to teach has been geometry.

“I like how she can be both blunt and hilarious,” says Freshman Lily Resnik, one of Ms. Truitt’s geometry students from this semester. She says Ms. Truitt is “very good at explaining concepts.”

After she is no longer teaching, Ms. Truitt plans to spend time traveling. She has a trip planned for each month, through January, including visits to Paris, Amsterdam, and the Grand Canyon. She also plans to continue her new hobby of beekeeping and doing more of the things she loves in general.

In terms of what she will miss about teaching, Ms. Truitt says that she won’t miss the job as much as she will miss interacting with her students.

“I really like the high school kids, talking to them,” she remarks.

Ms. Truitt will be missed by the students and teachers of Oakdale, but we hope she enjoys her travels and whatever else is in store for her.

“I hope she has fun with her bees!” Resnik adds.

While there are definitely aspects of teaching that Ms. Truitt will miss, there is one aspect of the job that she won’t be devastated to leave behind.

“I won’t miss getting up,” she laughs, “I hate getting up early.”
So if you see Ms. Truitt, be sure to wish her luck in her travels!