As the saying goes, teaching can be a thankless profession. Green Hope is known for being a competitive school, especially in terms of STEM classes. With hundreds of students taking accelerated math courses, a great instructor can be crucial to academic success, which is just what Ms. Ioana Ibanescu is known for. She has been teaching at Green Hope since 2023, and was hired shortly after graduating from NC State University with a degree in education, specializing in math.
Ms. Ibanescu graduated from Green Hope High School in the class of 2018. Like many of her students, she was skilled in math and enjoyed the tougher classes. Alongside academics, she was a member of Green Hope’s award-winning band and played the tuba throughout high school. When asked what made her want to come back to teach at Green Hope, she said, “I thought that all of my teachers were really great in high school, especially my math teachers. I loved all of them.” She works to inspire and support her students just as her teachers inspired and supported her when she was a student.
In sharing her motivation to work on the Falcon staff, she mentioned that Green Hope was one of the few schools that offered her a position as a precalculus teacher, one of her favorite subjects to teach and learn. Another key factor was the people, along with the practicality of working at Green Hope. “The admin here is great, and all the teachers here were great, and I just really liked the environment, and the fact that it’s so close to where my parents live, and where I live.”
Ms. Ibanescu also stays involved with school-related activities outside of teaching. She is the club advisor for Green Hope’s Math Honor Society, an organization that helps tutor students in various levels and subjects of math. Ms. Ibanescu herself also tutors, albeit not in association with Green Hope, only to students whom she does not teach. Additionally, she is a member of the 2026 GHHS Graduation Committee and will be helping to read the names of graduating seniors as they walk the stage in June. Ms. Ibanescu shared that in her next few years at Green Hope, she would love to become even more involved.
As teaching can be a time-consuming profession, it is important to keep up a work-life balance. Outside of school, Ms. Ibanescu enjoys various hobbies and activities. “I love reading. I love working out. I love going on really long walks. I’m really into astronomy, and I love stargazing, although I don’t really get to do it too often in Cary. I’m also really into baking.” She emphasized the importance of relaxation and separating work from home as a teacher, and said, “In general, I try to keep the weekends completely to myself. I try to never take work home if I can. I just really set up a strict work-life balance where work is at work, and home is at home, and don’t mix the two.
Looking past the challenges of teaching hundreds of students, it can be an incredibly rewarding experience. Ms. Ibanescu shared that she learns a lot from the time she spends with her students. “They offer me different perspectives on problems that I thought maybe only had one way of solving, or only one way of looking at it. And every day, I’m challenged to look into math concepts further and find other explanations and other routes other than just what I’m used to.” Having started her teaching career at a tutoring center while she was still in college, she recalls receiving gifts or cards from the students she was tutoring, and remembers feeling motivated by the assurance that her tutelage was improving someone’s academic success.
Ms. Ibanescu has already made her mark as an important member of Green Hope’s math department, and she hopes to continue to help students learn to love math as she does. Her hands-on teaching style allows students to learn more effectively, and her involvement in school activities makes it clear that she cares about the work she does. She wishes to continue teaching at Green Hope for as long as she can, and attributes much of her love for teaching to the students who leave her class feeling that, because of her help, they can succeed in whatever path they choose.
