new teacher profiles
Realizing a life-long dream
Apr 24, 2008 3:35 PM
Teaching her 1st-graders is everything Arielle Landeck ever dreamed it would be.
If you were Arielle Landeck’s little sister playing school when you were growing up you’d have to be the student. Whenever the little playroom downstairs became a pretend classroom, she’d insist on being the teacher every single time.
If you were her 2nd-grade teacher at a public school in Ardsley, N.Y., you’d find the little girl ever eager to help with classroom duties, volunteering to be your assistant in the school play and gazing at attendance books and lesson planners as if they were objects of worship. Years later, when that girl was a young woman, you’d find her back in your classroom learning at your knee.
“I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was little and my 2nd-grade teacher became my mentor,” Landeck says. “When I was in college and came home on break I spent weeks with her, helping in the classroom and working with some of the students.”
Today, at last, Landeck is officially at the head of her own classroom. She’s in her second year as a 1st-grade teacher and it’s everything she ever dreamed of.
Being at PS 32 in the Bronx helps. “There is so much support here,” she says. “Everyone works collaboratively in the grade and across grade. We’re lucky because we get a common prep where we get to plan together, we get a lot of professional development that really benefits us in the classroom, and we have a great principal.”
The support includes not only the school’s UFT Teacher Center and Department of Education literacy coach, but Landeck herself, who goes to Columbia University Teachers College once a month and brings back what she’s learned to her colleagues.
Being a new teacher and a master’s student at Fordham can leave Landeck breathless at times. “There are a lot of challenges; there’s always so much you want to do but never enough time in a day,” she says.
Nevertheless, Landeck manages to stay on track and UFT District 10 Representative Andrew Pallotta calls this new teacher “fantastic.”
What’s her secret?
A combination of planning, networking and letting herself really enjoy the kids.
“You have to plan really well and be organized so that you know exactly what you’re going to do and can deliver your instruction. Collaborating with your colleagues definitely helps, especially when it comes to designing lessons because you can think about what a student needs from a different perspective,” Landeck says, adding that even if teachers are in a school that doesn’t have a collaborative environment, they can still seek each other out and network together.
“Just enjoy the kids, enjoy teaching because that’s what you’re there for. Be as creative as you can with a lesson and make it stick with the kids so they look forward to coming to school.”
One simple creative idea Landeck came up with was taking her kids for a walk in the neighborhood before doing a nonfiction reading and writing unit about community helpers. That way, their minds were fresh with images and they were able to wax eloquently about a firefighter, a police officer, a librarian, a dentist, a doctor and, of course, a teacher.
“Now we’re starting on poetry,” she says. “First I got them working in groups doing different activities to get them immersed in poetry. One thing they did was pick out an object in our classroom observation center and make notes on a chart about what it looked like, felt like and reminded them of. Then they turned their notes into a poem.
“I love 1st grade because the children are really learning to read and write, and their excitement for it is amazing,” she adds. “They’re enthusiastic about learning — and they’re at an age that you can still be corny with them.”
