There are few words that do justice to our appreciation of teachers this spring.
Like Annyarie from Sacred Heart-Highbridge’s second grade, we miss seeing our teachers in person, even as we recognize that these months of distance learning have given us exhilarating insights into their determined work.
The men and women who educate and form Partnership students are embracing new methods of delivering instruction, tending not just to students’ work but to their well-being, teaching new content, routinely providing feedback, and doing all they’ve done for years in the classroom–often while caring for their own families. In a thankfully small number of cases, some teachers have even battled the coronavirus themselves.
In the past two months, the Partnership Post has been a way for us to elevate the work they do so humbly, and to examine the factors that we believe make their work effective in this new era. Today, we invite you to revisit with us just a few glimpses of the impact Partnership teachers are having, such as:
- The first Instagram live classes our enterprising P.E. teachers like Gerard Corinealdi from Mt. Carmel-Holy Rosary and Stephen Poaches from Sacred Heart launched–in Coach G’s case, within a single day of students being sent home, sensing early that movement was going to be even more important when students were confined to their homes:
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…highlighted in Educating the whole child in the age of COVID-19.
- Persisting with high-quality ELA and phonics instruction. We analyzed the work of Our Lady Queen of Angels middle school teacher Seamus Ronan here…
…and the efforts of early elementary educators Kelia Maul-Vera from MCHR, Shameika Freeman from St. Charles Borromeo, and Leslie Ciancuillo from St. Athanasius here…
This deep dive into the work of OLQA teacher Kat Prevo helped us appreciate in new ways the keys to effective in-person ELA instruction:
And the work of Zoraida Hernandez, MCHR’s 47-year veteran of ELA classrooms and teaching legend, was a delight to witness as it transitioned online:
- Making new math knowledge happen for students. The mix of empathy, precision, and determination that all of our teachers have brought to this task is noteworthy. We analyze the work of Yasmine Comacho, Saramarie Colandra, Imalai Castro and Kat Prevo from OLQA, as well as Leslie Ciancuillo and Julie Ficuciello from St. Athanasius here:
- Creating new ways for arts education to continue, as music teachers including Anthony Marchan from St. Mark’s, Michelle Trinidad from Sacred Heart, and others have done:
You can get more of a sense of their work from our highlights for Week 3 and Week 6.
Our visual arts teachers have outdone themselves in the quest to help students find and create beauty with minimal resources. We highlighted the work of Becca Anderson from SCB here:
And in our Week 5 Wrap-Up. It was a delight to see what Sacred Heart teacher Bill Moakler has inspired students to do in our Week 6 Wrap-Up, and to admire the work of Linda Smith’s students from St. Athanasius in Week 7.
- Throughout it all, teachers haven’t just emailed links or cut and pasted materials our network provides; they have made lessons their own, tailoring them to their own unique styles and students’ needs. Vice President for Academics Maggie Johnson profiled the efforts of Narlene Pacheco and Sr. Anna Theresa Tran from Immaculate Conception and Alyssa Nardelli from MCHR here:
- And teachers have tended to students’ hearts and minds, not just their academics. Most of that work takes place out of sight, in phone calls and encouraging emails. But we were privileged to glimpse how middle school teachers Claire Frazier and Berina Pobric from ICS keep eighth graders engaged by facilitating their encouragement of others in week 6:
For all the teachers we’ve highlighted so far in these Posts, there are dozens more who are making an impact every day. Partnership teachers model for our students and for us what it means to live and to serve with integrity, humility and hard work. We appreciate you today and every day.