Teacher Appreciation: Arbor Park

“I think that teaching as a profession is about thinking of others. It’s about service, a noble service and it is very other focused. I think this week is appropriate and it’s probably sustaining, to some extent, for teachers to know that they are recognized as being important, that the work that they do is critical. It takes a special kind of person to invest all their time in kids and not reap any kind of benefit other than knowing that you’re doing something for the sake of improving humanity. I think it’s important to recognize the amount of energy and patience and preparation that that takes in order to be successful.“

I think it’s an opportunity for us all to reflect on the hard work and dedication, as well as appreciate the never-ending important process of facilitating learning that teachers do every day. They are committed to building our young people into strong, smart, critical thinkers. Over the course of a school year, with all the great things that happen in our schools, within our classrooms, it is important to have a time dedicated where we all acknowledge the people that do a great job every day, that care about kids, that try to make them the best they can be.

“ I think the first thing is that they are brave because the OpenSciEd curriculum is inquiry-based and that was a paradigm shift for them in most regards. Being able to, in the midst of a pretty substantial number of years in education, encounter this different way of structuring a learning experience and being able to implement that even though you don’t feel expert at it yet, I just don’t know a different word other than brave. It also takes a leap of faith, to know that it’s going to potentially be a difficult transition until, all of a sudden, things start to become internalized by the kids and by you. Then it becomes more smooth, and I think the learning is stickier, and I think the children grow in their capacity to act like scientists. Which is be curious, question always, talk in order to gain different perspectives, and come to consensus last on why you believe something is or isn’t true.“

Camille Hogan-Director of Teaching and Learning

“I think their dedication to their craft and their students. I think their willingness to continuously learn and become better educators. Our science teachers, here at Arbor Park, understand they are vital to the critical thinking development process in each individual student they serve. I know that our science teachers take great pride in their work. Whether it be with the lesson planning, increasing their own capabilities, building connections and relationships to students, they bring positive action every day to their classrooms. They are difference makers.”

David Evans- Principal of Arbor Park

“I think Sam, in sixth grade, loves science, and she loves teaching. So that is the just right amount of porridge to make anything successful. The fact that she came to us with a degree in science means that her knowledge is not general. I think it does really take a lot of content knowledge in order to be able to anticipate where kids might get stuck and what question you have to ask or what connection you have to help them make in order to keep the momentum going towards understanding. I think we’re incredibly lucky there.”

Camille Hogan-Director of Teaching and Learning

“Ms. Medrano, is a new addition here at Arbor Park. She is new to inquiry and brings a contagious new teacher energy to her classes and lessons. Ms. Medrano’s supportive, quiet demeanor allows students to process information that has students talking about how they think differently when it comes to figuring things out in science. I look forward to her development in inquiry-based learning in her classroom.”

David Evans- Principal of Arbor Park

“Alicia, her superpower is organizing the process so that it is accessible for kids. She knows how to chunk. She knows how to scaffold. She knows when it’s time for explicit instruction and when it’s time to let kids have more ownership. I’m just so grateful that she’s done it with different content area curricula before. She’s done it with the ELA curriculum that we have. I felt really confident when I put her in science that she was just going to do her thing and she did. She doesn’t flounder and she doesn’t get overwhelmed, or if she does, she just works through it. The professionalism I think is really special.”

Camille Hogan-Director of Teaching and Learning

“Mrs. Bajt, is an organized powerhouse of dedication to planning that stop at nothing to get the best from her students. Her students gain greatly from her lessons, and I think that is because there is a joy from her that comes from diving down deep into inquiry. Mrs. Bajt’s passion for science education and looking at how kids are going to be able to make real-world connections to what they’re studying in class is visible and students benefit daily.”

David Evans- Principal of Arbor Park

“I think our kids are actually doing science instead of reading about science. For me, that was really critical. That’s not to minimize what was happening before, but you’re only able to conduct labs and experiments that the curriculum accounts for. I think it’s much more hands on and there’s much more doing rather than just abstract reasoning about a passage that you read. I think it’s exciting for kids.”

Camille Hogan-Director of Teaching and Learning

“They have great impact, I believe, because of their dedication to improving science instruction at Arbor Park, particularly inquiry-based lessons that have changed the way our students approach learning in their classrooms. They are also quality people that have a passion for what they’re doing daily. This comes through within their lessons and real, positive, relationships with students in their science classrooms. They inspire curiosity, critical thinking, and a love for learning in our students.” 

David Evans- Principal of Arbor Park

“Ultimately, no school system works if there isn’t trust. A parent has to trust that when a kid comes home and maybe is finding science hard because the teacher just won’t tell them the answer, the parent has to trust that there’s a reason behind that. It’s because we believe that a kid can grow in their capacity to understand. But they have to do the work. They have to dive in and experience. Ultimately, you want your child to be frustrated because that’s the ground level of reasoning and problem solving. So just having faith that there’s a reason for it and that the productive struggle won’t always be hard. It’ll get easier and then the self-esteem of the child comes from having done something hard.

Students have to believe in themselves. They have to agree that the belief their teacher has in them, means they can believe in themselves. If they can mirror the faith that they can rise to the expectations, then I think all their energy can be focused on discovery.“

Camille Hogan-Director of Teaching and Learning

” I think something as simple as expressing gratitude, it could be a note, an email, a verbal conveyance. A genuine acknowledgement to the people that are working with their kids every day goes a long way. The Teacher Appreciation Week that occurs in May every year is something that shouldn’t be overlooked. Teachers have such great responsibility in schools nowadays. They care, teach, love and support students so they can be the future leaders of our society. I think they should be acknowledged and appreciated as much as they can be.”

David Evans- Principal of Arbor Park