Share this story on Twitter.

Amanda Landingham teaches third grade at Ignacio Conchos Elementary. She has been teaching third grade there for four years.

Landingham, known as Ms. L to her students, is from Michigan. She came to Arizona to stay with her mom’s friend for “what was supposed to be two weeks,” she says. “I ended up falling in love with Arizona and stayed.”

That was not Landingham’s only life change. She was planning to become a police officer, but when she watched a friend teach her third-grade class she says she was moved by the love and care her friend showed to her students. She decided she wanted to be a positive influence for kids early on, and not see them later in the criminal justice system.

“I really desire for (students) to know I love them and will continue to be a part of their lives,” she says. Landingham says she doesn’t want kids to think of her as their teacher for just one year, but as their “forever teacher.”

Student Gabriel, who nominated Landingham, notes his teacher’s kind and respectful manner and says she works hard. “I like the signs my teacher puts up in class, like the sign that says ‘Mistakes are proof that you’re trying,’” writes Gabriel.

Landingham says she loves to start the year by reading “A Boy Called Bat” by Elana K. Arnold to her students. She says it is a favorite because the character in the book is on the Autism spectrum and must work to overcome challenges. She appreciates that message and sharing it with students.

“I love reading. I love teaching reading because it was an area that I struggled with as a young child,” she says. “It’s one of my favorite things to teach and do now.”

Besides reading, Landingham loves to spend time with her family and she says she took up balloon arrangements during the pandemic by watching instructional videos. She makes backdrops and balloon arches, she says, not balloon animals—and definitely not bugs!

“I have no composure when it comes to bugs,” she laughs. She says when there are insect visitors in her class she knows she should be calm, but “I just lose it.”

Landingham says it is the relationship with students that matters most to her. She wants them to know “that their teacher cares.”

Teacher is Great Form

Edition: 
Phoenix
Issue: 
October 2021