After a decade of teaching at Palo Alto High School, social studies teacher and department instructional supervisor Mary Sano will be retiring by the end of the 2024-25 school year. Throughout her 24 years of teaching, with a decade spent at Paly, she led one Social Justice Pathway cohort and taught multiple classes including Economics and AP Research.
Sano said she decided to retire for a number of reasons, including wanting to end on a positive note.
“It’s time to move on and do something different,” Sano said. “This year, it has been one of my best years as far as my kids — I just love my kids. It’s been a nice thing to think about going out on a really good, positive year.”
According to Sano, the best part of being at Paly was the dynamic and collaborative atmosphere between students.
“At any given moment, I look around and there’s so many different things going on in different groups of people,” Sano said. “There are people interacting, there are groups of people talking, there’s music going on over there, there’s art going on over there, and there are people laughing.”
Even as a teacher, Sano said she was also a student in her own classroom, and acknowledging that fact constantly motivated her to learn new skills and develop different perspectives.
“I had a kid once who I had really deep discussions with when I was teaching the India unit, and she just revealed some things to me that I hadn’t thought about before, as far as the way that I present material, sensitive material sometimes,” Sano said. “It’s just having those little surprises and interactions with students and colleagues that make you feel like you’re learning something all the time. Those moments are just what keeps you going.”
Sano said an important element of teaching effectively was to adapt to students’ skillset.
“As the year goes, you get to know the people in front of you more and so you can kind of modify and meld yourself so that it fits better for what kids need,” Sano said. “On any given day, you can walk in the room and reinvent what it is you’re trying to do.”
In addition, Sano said she realized that ingraining activities from lower grade levels was also a successful tactic in engaging high schoolers.
“I taught at middle school, so it absolutely was a very different environment at high school,” Sano said. “Learning about kids at all those different levels has been fun and enlightening. In the same breath, whether you’ve got a sixth grader, like a cute little 11 year old kid, or like an 18 year old ready to launch, there are also some very common threads about being a teacher that feel very familiar. All kids just need a safe environment where they feel cared about and happy to be there and excited to learn.”
Senior Anika Raffle, a student in Sano’s AP Research class, said the teacher’s dedication to her students was clear.
“Ms. Sano was always enthusiastic about meeting with us one-on-one,” Raffle said. “She always took the time out of her day and her personal time to make sure that her students were supported, and it’s really appreciated by everyone in her class.”
According to Sano, the relationships she built with her colleagues was also a significant part of her positive experience.
“One of the best things about Paly is the History/Social Science Department,” Sano said. “We’re like a family, for better or for worse, [and] we’re pretty close. Having a bunch of people who are interested in the world and are willing to discuss pretty much anything is pretty cool. We try to buoy up each other and crack each other up and just support each other. That’s a really important part of me being happy here at Paly … [and] I feel so lucky to have been a part of [the department] these last 10 years.”
Economics teacher Eric Bloom said Sano’s teaching style made her classes more personal and engaging.
“When we got her here, it was a huge difference because she’s a really experienced teacher,” Bloom said. “She knew a lot of the students and she understood the system. [She had an] ability to bring identity into the classroom, so that especially in the contemporary world, you’re seeing the perspective of others.”
For the next few months after leaving Paly, Sano said she will be spending her time out in nature.
“This summer, I’m going on a big old road trip,” Sano said. “People who know me know I love to travel. This time, I’m going up into British Columbia pretty far north, and it’s a very outdoorsy trip with wildlife and my mountain bike.”
According to Sano, her post-retirement plans are still mostly up in the air, but will involve supporting community and environmental causes.
“I’ve always dreamed about being a park ranger, or at least volunteering for a nonprofit,” Sano said. “I feel like my next purpose is some kind of community-important things like helping keep our oceans clean and safe, and saving redwood trees, so I would love to somehow be working in that way. I don’t know what that is yet, so I’ll have to explore and see.”
