  |
| |
|
Teacher of the Year is beacon at 'entry point' She celebrates sixth grade as time of change
March 31, 2005 Teacher of the Year Liz Day from the Mechanicville Teachers Association. Most teachers know all about "the bag." It's usually a canvas tote of some sort, slightly frayed and scuffed, with handles that are grooved from the owner's grip. "After 27 years, you'd think the bag would be empty. It's never empty," said Elizabeth Day, who like so many veteran teachers, has carried a bag for years. It ferries messages between home and school: assignments, papers to grade, ideas to share, books, arts and crafts. It all comes spilling out of the bag. The bag is all about the extras.
All those extras that Day brings to her job are among the reasons she's been selected 2005 New York State Teacher of the Year. A sixth-grade teacher from Mechanicville Middle School, she is the 35th state Teacher of the Year and the first from Mechanicville in Saratoga County. "Elizabeth Day is emblematic of dedicated teachers all across New York state who share her enthusiasm and devotion to students," says Tom Hobart, president of New York State United Teachers, which sponsors the Teacher of the Year program in concert with the State Education Department and other educational organizations. At a time when the state is focusing intense scrutiny on middle-level education, "It is inspiring that the state Teacher of the Year is an outstanding middle-level educator from one of the smaller districts in New York state," adds NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira. Day, known as "Liz" to her friends and peers, teaches the grade she calls "the entry point." "They're right in the middle," she says. "They're not kids. They're not teenagers. They're willing to be elves and put on tights for a school play. Or if I teach On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer about a child who dies, they're able to talk about making decisions, and the consequences." A member of the Mechanicville Teachers Association, Day teaches math, two blocks of science, reading and English Language Arts. Her classroom is chock-a-block with charts of the periodic table of elements, articles on mudslides, and problem-solving strategies. Protons and neutrons are like celebrities within these four walls: Pictures of them are plastered everywhere, and students stage proton and neutron reality shows. "I keep up with science. I read a lot," says Day, who has a bachelor's degree from Siena College and a master's in special education from the College of St. Rose . Discover magazine is likely to be found in her bag, and she's a fan of TV's The Learning Channel and Discovery. Over the course of five summers, she worked with district middle and high school teachers to align the science curriculum and incorporate earth science in the middle-level program. To illustrate the earth's slow evolution, Day has students make a riverbed of Play-Doh and a hill of macaroni, rice, salt and coffee grains on a cardboard catch basin. Students re-create light or heavy rain over several days to see what kind of erosion takes place, considering the slope of the hill, speed of the water and size of the particles. In another science project, students weather rocks with vinegar to test the effects of acid rain. In math, a recent lesson focused on prioritizing the order of operations: parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, left, right (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally Louise Roberts). She keeps her lessons fresh by adding new elements. "If I'm tired of that particular lesson, it's got to be something with me," she says. "I need to find the energy. It's important to renew ourselves outside the classroom." Outside interests For Day, renewal includes relaxing on her wide deck; enjoying time with her husband, John, or being mom to Sarah, now a college student. Then there's playing the flute. She's a charter member of the Colonie Memorial Band and performs with the Johnstown and Gloversville community bands. "It's challenging and keeps me mentally sharp," she says. The same goes for cantoring, a role she enjoys at her church. "It's something that renews my spirit, and takes me out of the classroom," she says. She is a theater enthusiast. During a sabbatical she was educator-in-residence with the New York State Theater Institute and has taught dramatics as an extracurricular. Day annually stages two sixth-grade shows that include original skits and student poetry and dance. One production is staged at a local nursing home, and another is performed for parents, peers and the senior class, who acted in the play when they were sixth-graders. "It's about the full circle," says Day, who mails graduating seniors pledges they made as sixth-graders about their life goals. Theater taps many learning objectives, she notes, including public speaking, narratives, creativity, organization and problem-solving. To wit: One student couldn't get his fake nose to stay on, just moments before the show was to begin. "Use what you need to!" Day had shouted. When the curtain opened, he'd stuck the nose on by wrapping masking tape all around his head. With theater, she says, "You see so many sides of students that remain hidden. This one boy had two lines and he stole the show." A lifelong resident of Mechanicville, she wears her warmth for her community like a shawl. "I'm glad to go up the street and know everybody," she says with a smile. The district has had its struggles, once going close to six years without a contract and salaries that lagged comparable districts. "We had to get the public on board," she says. "She picketed with us," says Jay Sullivan, Mechanicville Teachers Association president. "She's always been active with the TA. She's a bundle of energy." He says Day played in charity basketball games between the teachers and police, and she participates with the union/community program Project Kids, where teachers take students who need some extra support out clothes shopping. "We went from being the school that went the longest without a contract to a Teacher of the Year school," Sullivan says. "We've made a huge turnaround, and it's because of the quality activities like the ones Liz is involved with." Sullivan, who went to high school with Day, says his peer "puts in a lot of extra time making sure everything's just right. She can tell you something about every kid she's had. Every kid has a special remembrance." Class time In her class, students seem open and comfortable with her, eagerly raising their hands, telling her about their day or a brother she taught years earlier. One girl tries to sneak listening to a CD player, but Day is wise to such attempts and pulls the plug. In 30 years, Day has witnessed many changes in the landscape of faces before her. "Some students come in with an awful lot more baggage than I've ever seen," she says. "As teachers, we need to think about how Tommy got to school and what he had for breakfast." Roadblocks are part of teacher terrain. Her biggest challenges as a teacher, she says, are keeping up with change, particularly with computer technology, meeting new standards and dealing with children who come from increasingly diverse backgrounds. The rewards, of course, are abundant. And a daily reward is watching three former students become teachers who now work alongside her: Christina Ramnes, Jodi DeMarco and Casey Sgambati all teach sixth grade at Mechanicville. — Liza Frenette |
| ||
| | |||
