Teachers in my life

One of the coolest compliments a teacher can get from a student is that they're strict / firm but fair / nice. The first class I observed at JHS 157 was Ms. Lilly's 6th grade math class. She had a sign up on the back wall that self-desribed herself as not mean but firm, that she will push her students to do the best they can, and that she is funny. Chatting with some of her students confirmed this to be true. Later she told me she'd been teaching math / science for fourteen years. And how important it is to set students' expectations and sticking with it and being there for them. After my chat with Ms. Lilly and observing her math class, I had pretty much made up my mind that I wanted to teach middle school.

Next I observed Mrs. Grgas's 7th grade math class. She has been at Halsey for at least 27 years -- she was Ms. Sachs in my yearbook. Her teaching style seemed more like the traditional lecturer's, at least in the first half of class. The students I spoke to (briefly) in her class said the best teachers were strict / firm but could crack a joke now and then. I need to work on my knock knock jokes...

I observed Mrs. Beinstock and Mrs. Kahn's 8th grade honors math classes, where the desks were setup in groups of four and five. The students were busy preparing to take the New York State Regents test in the coming weeks. The teachers clearly had command of the classes. They engaged their students, pushed and prodded without deflating. I spoke briefly with Ms. K. West, the 7th grade Assistant Principal. She was very kind and helpful. I wonder if she's related to Ms. Yvonne West, the 7th grade coordinator from 1982...

The Halsey administrator I first contacted was Assistant Principal Greenhut, who heads the math dept. I found her in my Forest Trails '82 yearbook. Ms. Greenhut also teaches at Adelphi University, classes geared towards math teachers! So she offered some really good advice, including taking a behavior management course over the summer. She mentioned that Mr. Perine's wife teaches at Halsey, but was away on a field trip that day. Mr. Perine was my English teacher at Halsey and one of my favorites. Mrs. Willoughby, my typing teacher, I remember fondly, too. I was told she passed away.

My favorite teacher at Halsey was Mr. Howard Weinman. He taught Computer Math. He was a dedicated teacher. He organized the annual Computer Carnival, showcasing "games" his students developed on TRS-80s, Wangs and old punchcard machines. Shortly after I graduated I heard that he had left Halsey to teach at Forest Hills and then entered industry after he and his wife had their first child. Ms. Greenhut said he still teaches, as an adjunct instructor at Queens College. Lo and behold I Googled him and found the picture above from late last year. Mr. Weinman, if you see this post, know that it was in part because of you that I took AP Computer Math in Bronx Science, majored in Computer Science at Cornell, and worked in IT for 20 years. I hope you and your family are well...

Although it was my pre-calculus teacher in high school, Ms. Susan Lariviere, who planted the seed for me to some day teach math and it was my sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Jany Greif, who first instilled in me a love of math, it was my junior high school math teacher, Ms. Ruth Berman, who laid the foundation for my understanding mathematics. The irony is that even though I did well on her exams and her homework sets, I was a bit of a miscreant in her class. I rolled up my eyes at her, which she hated, which is why I did it. There was a mutual distaste, I think, sadly. So I think it's poetic justice, happy karma, that I will be following Ms. Berman's footsteps... I'll be looking over my shoulder every year for that bright student with an attitude to make Period 3 a living hell. I deserve it.

Okay. One more thing. Something happened while I was waiting outside the main office that wholely opened my heart and eyes to one of the great rewards of being a teacher. A girl, perhaps a 6th grader, with apparently mild Down Syndrome, walked by me. When she caught my eye she waved and smiled. I waved and smiled back. She continued on with a staff member up the stairs. That brief, chance encounter touched me so deeply that I have to believe for every racial epithet that I will endure during recess, for every tire slashed or car keyed, for all the times I'll want to send half my class to the principal's office... I have to believe that making a connection with just one student will make it worthwhile. Moreover if I can make an endelible mark on the life of at least one student, like my math teachers have made on mine, well, (or if a student makes an indelible mark on my life...) that's what it's about, isn't it?