Dedicated educator Anne Coleman Chambers taught in public schools in Maryland before establishing her own school, the Indian Creek School, which offered an innovative curriculum. Photo credit: Pasadena Voice.

Many dedicated educators work hard to provide enhanced learning opportunities and innovative curriculum for students in their communities. One of these is Anne Coleman Chambers, a public school teacher from Maryland who founded a highly successfully private day school in her community.

Anne was born in 1940, although she was raised in Colesville. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. Once she graduated from college, she taught in public schools in Prince George’s County in her home state until 1963.

Anne believed strongly that every student should be provided stimulating educational experiences in a small, nurturing environment in which each student is known and approached as an individual. To create this environment, she founded Indian Creek School, a co-educational Pre-K through grade 12 private school in Crownsville in 1973. Indian Creek School opened its doors in with 33 students in Pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade. Four years later, she opened a middle school that doubled its capacity, and in 2006 she added an upper school.

Anne built a curriculum for her students that offered not only a broad-based education emphasizing the fundamentals, but also stressed the importance of music, art, physical education, drama, clubs, and sports.  She included Spanish, computers, and human development instruction at a time when many schools didn’t offer those as subjects for older students, let alone for kindergartners. In addition, Anne was steadfast in her insistence that her school be a diverse and inclusive community from the start. Anne served as the school’s first Director from its founding until 2010, when she went back to the classroom to teach for one last year before she retired in 2011.

Anne Coleman Chambers passed away on Oct. 12, 2020, in Hagerstown, Maryland. She was 80 years old. She was a true Chalkboard Champion.