A former Hartselle High graduate, Anna Hall, was named the Hartselle High School teacher of the year.

Emily Cowart has knows Hall through softball, but also took a class from her. Cowart said it is Hall’s concern for the students that make her a good teacher. “She is very nice and willing to help you. Her notes are really in depth. She has a lot of examples and projects to help us understand it. I feel like she really has an impact on her students and make it one on one,” Cowart said.

Hall has taught at the high school for the past five years, and teaches physical science and earth and space. She says that being a teacher has almost always been a lifelong goal. “I guess growing up I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, but then when I was in high school they talk about making money and I thought about being an accountant and being a physical therapist. I thought I wanted to be a nurse. I went through every possible option and then when I went to Calhoun I decided I wanted to be a teacher, it doesn’t matter how much money I make, I want to somehow impact people’s life in a positive way,” Hall said.  

In addition to teaching, Hall also helps with the cheerleaders and the softball team at the high school. She says one of her favorite moments was being with Hartselle softball when they won the state championship in 2014 and 2018.  “I am not the head coach, but just to be part of that… Hartselle is a great place to work. The crowd that we had at the state tournament was amazing. Nobody else had that. We have so many positive things going on at Hartselle,” Hall said.

Hall said that support also can be found with her coworkers, many of which were her teachers when she was a student. “Well I work with a lot of the people that I had and they are wonderful. Everyone here is just so nice and so supportive of each other. It’s a great place to work. I would not want to work anywhere else. I am very blessed and very honored to be part of such an amazing high school. Everyone helps out and everyone pitches in on everything. It’s also nice if I need to ask a question to be able to talk to someone that you had because you can see their different teaching styles,” Hall said.

In addition to being a Hartselle High graduate, Hall has her undergraduate degree from Athens and her master’s from West Alabama. She said that little moments throughout the day help make her job meaningful. “There is a bunch of little things that come up. Maybe you have had a bad day and they say ‘Hey, Ms. Hall. How’s your day’ and you’re like I really needed that. Its little things that happen through the day that are God moments,” Hall said.