To students, Diane Gray is a 9th grade English teacher who has been working here her entire high school teaching career and is an institution in the 700s wing. But, Mrs. Gray is more than just a teacher. She is a mother to three, a loving dog mom and a fan of the arts who enjoys a great book.
Mrs. Gray has been working at West Essex for 16 years. During her first two years at West Essex, she taught at the middle school working in 7th and 8th grade. After that, she switched to 9th grade English and hasn’t looked back.
“I really love this school,” Gray said. “Its students – it’s a great community here.”
Gray attended Pennsylvania State University, where she was a marketing major and graduated with a business degree. Before becoming a teacher she worked in the marketing and advertising department at the New York Times. Gray enjoyed her time there but the traveling was too much for her, especially as her family grew. Being a teacher had always been a dream of hers, so she decided to make the switch.
“I always wanted to be a teacher, ever since I was a little girl, but I went to college in the 1980s and that was a time period where there were a lot of new opportunities for women,” Gray said. “So I decided to pursue a major in business because of those kinds of opportunities.”
Gray has many hobbies, one of them being reading. Her favorite book since she was 12 -years-old is “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith. This book showed Gray for the first time how a book can transport you to a different place.
“That book made me laugh and cry,” Gray said. “I was a girl in Wayne, NJ, …every time I opened it, it’s as if that’s where I was, and I moved there. I always read, but I never before read a book that had such an impact.”
Gray also loves baking, traveling and going to see Broadway shows. She is married to her husband Bob and has three children. Her older son is 30-years-old, and her twins are 28. Gray is also very fond of her Australian Labradoodle.
“She is adorable,” she said. “Her name is Baci… She is named after the Italian candy.”
Gray also recognizes her teaching style can be seen as a bit old school. She understands how her classroom could be viewed as strict, but she does this for the betterment of her students and for them to reach their full potential.
“I want students to understand that working hard pays off,” Gray said. “Maybe at the time, it doesn’t seem that way, but how they learn to achieve will be the lesson that they take going forward,” said Gray.
