By Sukainah Abid-Kons, contributor
In Anna Henkel’s biology class at Harrisonburg High School, students are likely to get a spoiler alert: “I’m going to ruin your life by making you see biology everywhere,” she tells them.
This combination of originality and excellence is part of what makes Henkel beloved among faculty and students alike. It’s also what led to her being nominated for and winning statewide recognition through the Virginia Association of Science Teachers. Henkel was one of eight winners of the group’s Recognition in Science Education (RISE) award.
“Anna is a very humble person,” Harrisonburg High’s principal, Melissa “Missy” Hensley, said during the award recognition at the Dec. 2 school board meeting. She said Anna made an impression almost immediately after arriving at HHS as a student teacher.
“There was just something special about her, and I heard about it very quickly,” Hensley said. “When I observed Anna teaching, I was very impressed, something that can be challenging to do.”
Growing up, Henkel felt a calling to the classroom.
“I definitely grew up knowing I wanted to be a teacher. My mom worked at Good Shepherd here in the area, so I grew up around teaching,” she said.
It wasn’t until a few years later that Henkel realized what she wanted to teach. After falling in love with life science in 7th grade, her interest in science only grew.
“I really liked that life science was applicable to my everyday life, and a lot of questions that could be answered for life around me,” she said.
This interest led to a biology class in high school, which led to another, and then another. Biology, in a similar vein to life science, was applicable to Henkel’s everyday life — a perspective she’s now giving to her students.
Born in Harrisonburg, Henkel moved around a bit during her younger years, but returned to the Valley for school, first attending Blue Ridge Community College for two years before transferring to Bridgewater to finish her studies.
After completing her schooling, she started student teaching at Harrisonburg High, where she immediately felt at home.
One thing she especially appreciates about her students is how they are unafraid to make connections between what they learn in the classroom and the real world.
“The students in Harrisonburg are really attuned to conversations that are hard,” she said. “It’s thrilling, honestly.”
Henkel also loves that, for as much as she teaches her students, they teach her things as well. In such a diverse district, she said she is always learning about new cultures, languages and countries (not to mention the many perspectives she gets to hear day in and day out).
Henkel’s approach to teaching has made her popular in the classroom. She says that with biology now being a state-required Standard of Learning in Virginia, she recognizes the importance in making sure that every student has the tools they need to pass. And her goal is to accomplish that by making learning fun.
“I do a lot of word-play and analogies and songs and hand movements,” she said. Active learning methods, which can help the information stick in a student’s mind.
Much of that had to do with Henkel’s ability to engage her students, Hensley told the school board.
“Anna knows how to bring her classroom to life,” Hensley said. “She is truly invested in her students not only as learners, but most importantly as people.”
But to Henkel, the main goal remains to make sure that every student has the best chance possible to succeed. In fact, she didn’t even know that she’d been nominated for the RISE award. Finding out that she’d won was also a bit of an accident, and the initial announcement email had been blocked on her school server.
“It was kind of just shocking for me, I just feel like I’m doing my job in the way that is right for me to do it,” she said.
It’s the smaller moments, she said, that make her love what she does: lectures that turn into discussions, seeing students succeed, and benefiting from knowledge that comes organically out of a learning ecosystem.
“There are good things in every day,” she said, “if you just look for them.”
When she’s not teaching, she likes to unwind by spending time with her husband and going on walks with their two dogs. She also loves cooking and baking, which she says are some of the things that can help her take her mind off work on her days off.
And while at work, Henkel follows a simple philosophy for student success: “One student, one score, one day at a time — trying to get students to do the best that they can do every day.”
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