Mrs. Cassie Hellriegel has been awarded the distinguished Armuchee High School “Teacher of the Year” award for 2023-2024 school year. The “ Teacher of the Year” award is an award given once a year to one AHS teacher that has shown that they are committed to their students, demonstrated the ability to respect students, and teach students efficiently. Mrs. Hellriegel teaches self contained classes (special education). She has met all of these requirements while teaching her students. She said “While teaching it helps me to show how much I care for all my students.”
Something that inspired Mrs. Cassie Hellriegel to be a teacher was that her mom was a teacher, Mrs. Hellriegel said, “I used to always like to go to her school and hang out with her kids.” She loved hanging out with the kids and pretending to teach them like her mother. So she always wanted to be a teacher just like her mom. First she said, “I wanted to be a speech pathologist first but I didn’t want to have to go to school for so many years.” Mrs. Hellriegel decided to be a special education teacher instead of being a speech pathologist because becoming a teacher does not have as many years of school as a speech pathologist does.
Mrs. Hellriegel loved being given this award, especially since this award is only given once a year to one very important teacher. She said, “It is a great honor to receive this award.”
She also coaches football cheer and loves interacting with the girls on the team. One of the senior members on the team, Peyton Falk said “I love Mrs. Hellriegel because she is an amazing teacher and coach.” She is very loved by the school community. Mrs. Hellriegel has many jobs but manages to complete them all without any major mistakes.
There are many reasons Mrs. Hellriegel deserves this very honorable away but one of them being for her passion in the classroom to want everyone to be learning at all times. She said, “I loved using different methods with my kid everyday so they get a different way of learning, so it is not always the same thing.” She always wants to keep the classroom fun for everyone so none of her kids get bored and stop paying attention to her.
Mrs. Cassie Hellriegel has been working at Armuchee for a while now and she has many things she loves about this school. She said, “A few things I love about Armuchee are the people that I work with and the kids I teach and coach cheerleading. She loves coaching cheerleading because of all the girls she gets to see and talk to while coaching. When she first started out teaching she believed she wanted to work at Pepperell, yet quickly changed her mind when she started here at Armuchee. She said, “I started teaching at Pepperell because I always thought I wanted to teach at Pepperell but then I got here and I really love teaching here at Armuchee.” She now has a home here at Armuchee High School.
Mrs. Cassie Hellriegel has many hobbies outside of school and teaching. She said, “I enjoy vacationing, reading, going to my child’s sporting events, hanging out with my family, and shopping outside of teaching my students.” She also loves coaching football cheerleaders and teaching them cheers and dances similar to teaching in her classroom. She does most of her vacationing and reading in the summertime which is when teachers don’t have to work. Mrs. Hellriegel’s favorite things about being a teacher are that she enjoys having a little break from all that she has to do while being a teacher. She has breaks during school but not near as long as summer break. So during summer break she has more time to do the things she wants to do, but can’t because she does not have enough time in the little breaks during school. We are so thankful and proud of Mrs. Hellriegel here at Armuchee High School, and wish her a congratulations on her award.
