Wallingford middle school mourns a special teacher

As published via MyRecordJournal.com Thursday May 16, 2013

By Eric Vo
Record-Journal staff
evo@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2235
Twitter:@ericvoRJ

Photo courtesy of the Record Journal

WALLINGFORD — To her students, Tiffany Schroeder was a dedicated teacher with a teaching style that allowed them to relate to her on professional and personal levels. To her co-workers, she was a woman they admired for always wanting the best for the children.

Schroeder, 45, taught seventh-grade math at Moran Middle School. She died on Saturday at MidState Medical Center after a long illness.

“Passionate, enthusiastic and very compassionate,” is how Anne Varrone-Lederle describes Schroeder. “She was just empathetic and really liked people. She really tried to understand the differences among people. She was a brilliant, brilliant teacher.”

Varrone-Lederle, a seventh-grade Spanish teacher at Moran, knew Schroeder since the early 1990s. The two were members of the same sorority and met when Schroeder attended an alumni event at Varrone-Lederle’s house, she said. They eventually became neighbors and their daughters grew up together. Outside of work, Schroeder was a “wonderful wife and mother, who was just passionate about being a mom,” Varrone-Lederle said.

Schroeder was the wife of Thor Schroeder and leaves two children, Courtney and Gardiner.

Schroeder began her educational career at North Branford Intermediate School before she joined Moran as a math teacher in 2000. As a teacher, she “had an ability to reach all groups of students and all levels of learners,” Varrone-Lederle said.

Moran Principal Joe Piacentini said, “In all the conversations I had with her, she was always talking about things she could do for the kids.”

Since today’s students learn in a variety of ways, Piacentini said, Schroeder was accommodating. He recalled a time he saw some of her students doing their work in the hallway because there was more room there. She was a teacher who would do anything to help her students, Piacentini said.

If it meant using unorthodox methods to encourage interest, she was more than willing. When students were learning about inversion of fractions, Schroeder would do a handstand in front of the class.

“She has a very loud voice and her voice carries. I’ve been taking seventh grade math day in and day out,” Varrone-Lederle said. “She had great diction and you just knew there was great teaching going on in that room.”

Her method of teaching allowed her to make “real world connections through math that students understood,” said Keri Carbone, an eighth-grade science teacher at Moran. Those connections stayed with students even when they left the school. Each year, many of her former students would come back to visit, Carbone said.

“Tiffany’s positive, encouraging teaching style has influenced the way I teach and interact with my students,” Carbone said.

Varrone-Lederle said students are still heartbroken over Schroeder’s death. Her daughter, Lizzy Lederle, was one of Schroeder’s students. Schroeder took a few days off from school before her death, so teachers, friends and staff knew something was wrong. Each night, Varrone-Lederle said she talked to her daughter and let her know that her teacher was moving on to a better place and that it was OK to express her emotions.

“We just talk about the good things. How when people die, they go to a better place and that Mrs. Schroeder is feeling better in heaven,” Varrone-Lederle said.

On hearing the news Saturday morning, School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo made sure social workers were sent to the middle schools. Menzo also arranged for support services for teachers who had known and worked with Schroeder. In addition, Craig Turner, the town’s Youth and Social Services director, helped Menzo with providing staff to help students and teachers.

Menzo said he knew about Schroeder’s health problems and the probable outcome, so he was able to work with Piacentini to make sure everyone was prepared.

“We had a whole plan in place. ... We tried to be as proactive as possible during a tremendously difficult time,” Menzo said. “We made as much effort as we could to try to offer as much support as possible.”

To honor Schroeder, students, teachers and staff today will wear yellow — her favorite color. It’s just one of many ways the students plan to honor the teacher.

Before school ended on Thursday, Varrone-Lederle said she asked her last-period class to choose a few words to describe Schroeder.

“ ‘Awesome’ was the first word to come out of their mouths,” Varrone-Lederle said. “She was an awesome lady and an awesome teacher. She will be missed. She already is.”