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Education is a part of me. I believe that one good teacher can make a difference. I wanted to be that teacher! My career spanned more than four decades. I have spent most of my life in a classroom, during which time I taught most subject areas and almost all grade levels.
Reading children’s literature has always been one of my passions. Whenever I entered a bookstore or a library, I would find myself in the children’s section, eagerly perusing the shelves, trying to discover a new treasure to share with my students.
I have wanted to become a teacher ever since the fourth grade, and recall inviting the neighborhood children (and my own sister) over ‘to play school.’
To this day, my sister, a physician, credits me with teaching her to read. I loved going to school, and the thought of school ending saddened me. It was that thought that propelled me into becoming a teacher, a decision I never regretted.
Having successfully survived forty-five years in the public and private sectors of both the New York and Nevada school systems has resulted in the writing of Pencils Down!
I believe many things about teaching, but most importantly, I believe that teaching is about loving what you do and loving your students. Teaching requires patience, love, selflessness, perseverance, and a determination to teach students to become lifelong learners. Students of today are the future. Becoming an educator is about making a difference.
I was born in New York City in 1944, and raised in the suburbs of New York. After graduating from Hicksville High School on Long Island in 1961, I attended Queens College of the City University of New York, where I received a B.S. Degree in 1965, with a dual major in education and psychology. My teaching career began at the elementary level. I taught reading, writing, spelling, math, and social studies, as well as a variety of other subjects when called upon. Later, I taught reading and creative writing at the middle school, while actively pursuing an additional degree in my major field. I returned to my Alma Mater and obtained a M.S. degree in education in 1969. Continually seeking new ideas in education prompted me to add sixty additional graduate credits to my Master's Degree.
Over four decades, I taught additional classes including children’s literature and reading and writing instruction. I have supervised practicum and student teachers, mentored workshops for new teachers, worked as a staff developer, written curriculum, and created professional development plans. I also took an active role in aligning interdisciplinary units with local curriculum objectives and the “New York State Compact for Learning.”
During my many teaching years, I traveled to different school districts teaching teachers how to engage students in reading and creative writing. I have also written several curriculum guides used in my school district, the Plainedge Public School District, North Massapequa, New York. I am licensed in both Great Books and the Atlas Study Program, and have a New York State Permanent Teaching Certificate.
After retiring from the New York School System after thirty-five years, and moving to Nevada, I became bored rather quickly, and could not consider giving up doing what I loved most, teaching. I applied to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where I taught classes in literacy and closely supervised practicum and student teachers.
At the same time, Nova Southeastern University (NSU) was holding classes on the west coast and in need of experienced teachers to add to their staff. At NSU, I taught additional classes to aspiring teachers. I taught ten years at the university level, until my retirement in the year 2010, with a total of forty-five years as an educator.
A letter I received from a student twenty-five years after she had left my classroom validated my career choice. The letter began, “For a Wonderful Teacher: I’ll always remember how your guidance made the way easier, how your enthusiasm made the work fun, and, most of all, how your encouragement spurred me on. Thanks for being such a wonderful teacher!”
Pencils Down! is my forty-five year classroom odyssey, whose itinerary began in elementary school and spanned more than four decades. I have taken that journey at the head of the class.
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