Erie High School is where we find this week’s outstanding educator earning the Golden Apple Award.
Mrs. Deena Long is a math teacher at Erie High where deep down, she always wanted to do this.
“My second-grade teacher inspired me, and then when I got to high school, I said, ‘no I’m not going to be a teacher.’ And then I went to Edinboro and I was just sparked again
and thought yep that’s what I want to do with my life. I’ve been working with teenagers ever since,” said Deena Long, Golden Apple Award-winning teacher.
After more than 30 years in the classroom and one at Erie High School, you would’ve never guessed the rest of the story if you had known her in high school.
“I actually didn’t graduate from high school because I ditched a lot of school my senior year. I went back to visit my high school guidance counselor when I was two years out of high school, and he said you should be in college,” Long said.
So she got her GED and enrolled at Edinboro, thanks to the suggestion she could from her counselor who offered a lifelong lesson for this Golden Apple teacher.