Special education teacher Ann Fuhrman will be retiring at the end of this year following eight years of helping Algonquin students thrive through her educational support and kindness.

After working in the school’s language-based program teaching English to freshmen and sophomores with specific learning disabilities, Fuhrman is ready to move on to the next page of her life. However, while looking forward to the future, she will miss aspects of teaching.

“What I have enjoyed the most has been working with the kids,” Fuhrman said. “The interactions with the students is what I’ll miss the most.”

Still, there are parts that she won’t miss and feels relieved to not have to do once this year closes out.

“Paperwork is a lot,” Fuhrman said. “Writing IEPS, doing progress reports and going through all of these documents takes a long time.”

Department chair of Instructional Support Felicia Rutigliano is grateful for all Furhman did for the school.

“She positively impacted a lot of students and families here in our school with her specialized strategies of teaching students with specific learning disabilities how to read and write better and become more confident in their academic skills,” Rutigliano said.

While she will miss her students, according to Rutigliano, the students will also miss Fuhrman as she brought her kind nature to the classroom every day and taught them to have a more positive outlook on life.

“She was always taking care of her students in special ways,” Rutigliano said. “In the wintertime she would have a hot kettle of water for them so that they could make hot chocolate anytime they wanted to. She was just very kind in that way and always had their back.”

Fellow special education teacher Alison Chan, who has known Fuhrman since she began at Algonquin, will miss her and cherishes their experiences teaching together.

“She and I worked really closely together her first year that she was here,” Chan said. “We were in the same classroom and it was one of the best years I have ever had here.” 

Chan admires Furhman, not only as a teacher, but as a person.

“She is a positive person and she pushes her students, but as a coworker, she’s not afraid to speak up,” Chan said. “My favorite part of working with Ann is that she definitely would just make me laugh every day.”

Fuhrman has thoroughly enjoyed working at Algonquin and will carry many fond memories with her in the future.

“When I first came here, I loved the atmosphere,” Fuhrman said. “It was very supportive.”

Although Fuhrman says her plans for the future are still up in the air, she hopes to move south within a few years and plans to do things she has always been interested in but never had the chance to do before retirement, such as going back to school.

“I want to take some art classes, and I actually wouldn’t mind taking some science classes as well,” Fuhrman said. “I’m doing it for fun, not for a career.”

Along with learning, she also plans to do other fun hobbies like painting, but her main focus will be on getting herself stronger through more physical activity to help her recover fully from surgery she had a couple years ago. 

“Part of my plan is to get my muscles back,” Fuhrman said. “I’m looking forward to improving myself the most.”