June 8, 2026 by Carlin Phillips (‘27)
9:30 in the morning and a woman is standing on a desk shouting about John Proctor and rhetoric. This is English with Ms. Bacher. She may seem intense or strict when you first meet her, but there is a lot more to her than what meets the eye. Ms. Bacher is an English teacher at Saratoga Springs High School, and teaches classes from AP Language and Composition to electives to DCT English. She is a teacher who wants the absolute best for her students and strives to see them succeed.
Ms. Bacher has been an English teacher for ten years, but her path to education didn’t start there. When she was younger, Bacher would go with her father, a school psychologist, to help with the pre-school kids during the summer while he did his evaluations. “I thought that I was helping, and I was teaching the kids. It was just fun for me. It was fun being in that kind of role model experience,” said Bacher. Along with helping preschoolers over the summer, Bacher was a constant presence at her karate studio, beginning to help around the studio at ten, and teaching martial arts classes professionally by seventeen.
Bacher has always had that teaching spirit in her. When she was fourteen, she began to coach at the karate studio, helping people to make their running time for the black belt. In doing this, she learned to lead large groups of people and to take charge from a very young age. “One of the really cool things with run coaching is you get to celebrate people’s successes with them, and I think that’s something that I like about teaching, too, is celebrating when people get it, when they do the thing, when they learn, when they experience something”, Bacher said.
Ms. Bacher adores her students. The way Bacher runs her classroom comes from a place of compassion. Bacher is passionate about English and fueling young minds to be just as passionate as she is. “She super cares, she’s super passionate. She knows everything that you’ve ever told her,” said Mrs. Price, a coworker of Bacher’s. Price and Bacher shared a classroom, as well as advising students for four years together. Bacher teaches in a way that makes her seem intense, but she isn’t. Her teaching strategy is one that helps her ensure her students truly grasp the concepts she is teaching and making sure they are “getting it”. “As much as she cares about that comma, she cares about her students in that same way,” said Price. “Her strictness comes from a place of care and compassion,” Price adds.
If students aren’t “getting it”, Bacher will work around it. She works hard to make sure her students understand the ideas Bacher is teaching. “She wants her students to succeed so much and does so much work to make sure that happens,” said Mrs. Gale, a special education teacher and direct consultant, who has worked with Ms. Bacher for six years, teaching English together.
Bacher teaches all kinds of students, whether it be the AP kids, the English 11 students, or the special education students she teaches along with Mrs. Gale. Bacher always makes sure to have something special and fun planned for all of them, making sure they are engaged in the topics they are discussing, and accommodating everyone. “She is so accommodating and so wonderful,” said Gale. She loves to teach and loves seeing the students flourish. In the process, she provides a safe place for her students. If they need advice on something, if they need a space to just “exist”, or if they just want to joke around with their favorite teacher, Bacher is always there for them. “She’s really great at being your leader, your sensei, your beacon of information and guidance,” said Price. Bacher has a lot of respect for her students and works hard to give them opportunities to grow, learn, and have fun in English.
Something many people don’t know about Ms. Bacher is, even though she is an English teacher, she struggles to spell and read words occasionally. She was never truly diagnosed with dyslexia, but in college, she had a few of her professors tell her she may have it. “It hurts me saying things out loud because I can’t necessarily read the word correctly and working with like the phonemes and how words are pronounced, I can’t always nail them,” Said Bacher. Even though this small thing makes Bacher’s job as a teacher harder, she never lets it get in the way of her teaching or her credibility. “Before our lesson, I have to read through everything to start with. I will sit with Google, and I’ll push the button and say pronounce this for me, say it again, say it again,” Said Bacher. Bacher constantly perseveres through her difficulty with words to make sure she is giving her students the right information.
Bacher is passionate about not just teaching, but about English, especially nonfiction “I really like history stuff too, and I think that’s part of it,” Said Bacher. She works with her AP Language and Composition students on a lot of vocabulary work, having new vocab sets and quizzes almost every week “I also love words. We do a lot of vocabulary because I like words, I like building the students’ vocabularies because the more words you know the less confused you get when people are talking to you.” Bacher said. Bacher tries to set her students up for success. By providing them with new vocabulary as well as quizzing them on it, they build stronger dialects and can understand more rigorous ideas.
Bacher tries to provide her students with all the necessary tools for continuing to college and bigger things while also following the curriculum. “She wants her students to succeed so much and does so much work to make sure that happens.” Said Price. Bacher is always adjusting her lesson plans and tweaking the little things to make sure her students are getting the information they need, while also making it engaging and fun. English may not be everyone’s favorite subject, but Bacher always seeks to make them at least interested in what she has to say.
Bacher is a very influential and exciting presence in the English department of Saratoga Springs High School. She is always animated in her teaching, making it fascinating. Ms. Bacher is much more than the figure standing on a desk shouting about different concepts she is a dedicated teacher whose every action is rooted in the desire to see her students flourish. From her early days in the karate studio to her current role in the high school, she has carried a strong spirit that prioritizes guidance, growth, and the celebration of her students and their victories. Ms. Bacher has the compassion to push students toward their highest potential, ensuring they leave her classroom with a stronger voice and the confidence to use it.