Anne Eichman

Social Studies, Teacher

Next year our social studies department will be headed by a face both new and familiar. Anne Eichman will be joining the team after seventeen years of teaching social studies in schools ranging from Quincy, Illinois to Lawrence, Kansas, and most recently Lakes Community High School. When asked about the transition from Lakes to Antioch, Eichman says she believes “the two schools are a lot more similar than sometimes people think. In Antioch the sense of community is amazing. Last Friday I was in the building for a couple of hours in the morning and literally every person who I ran into just went out of their way to say, ‘hi, welcome, you’re going to love it here,’ so already I have just felt a sense of community and genuine warmth. This will be Ms. Eichman’s first experience as a department chair, but she has plenty of similar experience to fall back on, particularly her experience with the district mentoring program over the last six years. She says she’s really looking forward to “being able to continue that work in growing young teachers and supporting them and finding what they’re passionate about and building on their strengths and promoting social studies education.” Social studies, she says, is a vital subject because “we have to help students think critically about issues that will present themselves, and social studies does all of that. My goal as a social studies educator, as a history educator is to help students think critically, analyze viewpoints, and then engage themselves in productive discourse.” That sense of civic responsibility seems to permeate through her whole approach to history. Her favorite historical figure is Abraham Lincoln because of “his brilliance and his ability to listen and gauge the mood of the country and sort of be flexible but yet never lose sight of his end goal, and his determination for racial equality is just an inspiration.” In addition to her role as an educator, one of Eichman’s favorite roles is as a mom to her three year old daughter, Abigail. She says her family loves to travel and watch Abigail “experience new things and grow and just be an amazing little girl.” If you see Ms. Eichman around the building, be sure to say hi and welcome her to the Sequoit team.

Congratulations to Antioch's newest National Board Certified Teachers: Jon Salaban, Michael Riggs, Audrey Nagel-Schoonmaker, and Stephen Rose!