“I never wanted to be a teacher,” admits Ms. Ferryman.
Yet, after changing the direction in career from working in an office to working in schools, she is now known as one of the most beloved teachers of the East Lyme high school. Known for her humor, patience, and ability to make complex concepts approachable, Ms. Ferryman is an important teacher to all students.
“Knowing I have Statistics with Mrs. Ferryman next block immediately brightens my day. She’s a great teacher and her class always has so much food,” senior Gabriel Hanney, AP statistics student says.
For Mrs. Ferryman, statistics is more than numbers, formulas, and calculations because they only matter when we understand what they can tell us about the real world.
“The interpretation is what really matters,” Ms. Ferryman said.
Staring her days with either coffee or Diet Coke she loves showing the students how statistics can be applied to a variety of fields from sports, politics, science, and the economy.
“I’m most proud that I never lost my sense of humor, that I still find students fascinating,” Ms. Ferryman said.
Outside of school Mrs. Ferryman enjoys hiking, reading, biking, travelling, and annoying her children.
“I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones because I have her for stats and trig. She once mistook me for a junior which got the entire class laughing. She’s just a wonderful teacher and loves to joke around,” senior Nathan Socha said.
While she may be a fan favorite amongst the students, her fellow calculus and trigonometry teacher Mr. Bergeron would say otherwise.
“Mrs. Ferryman deals in probabilities. I deal in certainties … like me carrying the badminton team,” Mr. Bergeron said.
Her college academic journey began with majoring in civil engineering for two years, later switching into the business department to pursue industrial engineering for two years, focusing on applied statistics. After college, she began working for a finance company in Boston. It wasn’t long before she realized her passion wasn’t found in a cubicle, “I decided I didn’t want to do that for the rest of my life, so I had to choose where I wanted to go next,” Ms. Ferryman said.
“I could never imagine Mrs. Ferryman in an office job. She has so much positive energy that lights up the class and without her I would be hopeless in statistics,” senior Cate Bustamante said.
She took a gap year after college to explore the culture and gain new perspectives in Europe, an experience she’ll never forget. Spending the year in places like Spain, she began to realize the importance of pursuing a passion, rather than being safe.
“I applied to law school because if my sister could do it, so could I,” Ms. Ferryman said.
She got in and recalled her first lunch break spent looking up careers to pursue with a law degree other than becoming a lawyer.
“It just seemed so tempting to hide out in law school for a few years,” Ms. Ferryman said.
Instead, she returned to school for a masters in mathematics and a certification in education. She began teaching when she was 27, balancing teaching during the day and completing her masters in mathematics at night. Her first teaching job was at the RHAM school in Hebron, then she taught 8th grade at East Lyme Middle School, and later East Lyme High School.
“I’m so glad Mrs. Ferryman ended up at our high school. She has a calm and welcoming presence that makes me feel comfortable in class, and I always kick back, take my shoes off and enjoy a good lesson,” senior Aidan Cochrane said.
“I love Mrs. Ferryman’s class but it always smells like feet,” senior Andrew Sevigny said.
Though she has dreams of one day returning to Europe, for now she’s happy at ELHS, helping students learn math in fun ways.
“I don’t count the days until retirement because I really enjoy what I do,” Ms. Ferryman said.
