Editor’s note: To read profiles of all 2015-2016 Blackboard Awards honorees, click HERE!
Saray Elena Whittaker
Grades 3-5 Foreign Language (Spanish), Literacy Specialist
The Sarah Anderson School—P.S. 9
Tell us about some of the special joys and challenges you’ve experienced as a teacher.
Being a teacher is filled with its joys and its everyday challenges. I can expect each day to be different and exciting. Being both the Spanish enrichment teacher ranging from third to fifth grade and the literacy specialist means that there is a great deal of planning involved in my responsibilities at varied levels and in varying subjects. As the Spanish teacher, I get to experience student growth year after year and have the opportunity to really get to know them and see how they evolve in their Spanish skills and as overall students and citizens of our P.S. 9 Community. As the reading specialist, I get to know some students on a deeper level, in small group interactions. I work at identifying areas of strength and challenge when it comes to their literacy development and encouraging them to push themselves further than they had before in reading, writing, and thinking about text. This is truly one of the most exciting moments in my career, seeing the change, and always hoping that I am making a lasting impact in the student’s life and in their confidence and enthusiasm for learning.
Please share a special project or achievement (or two) that you are particularly proud of from this year.
P.S. 9’s Spanish Enrichment Program is something that I am particularly proud of and very grateful for. I have had the amazing opportunity to develop the school’s program for the past eight years. I have been able to work alongside truly gifted teachers, enthusiastic parents, and supportive administration to bring this program about. It is a very distinct program in which its mission is to expose students to the Spanish language using the content areas as their basis of instruction. Through this enrichment program, students gain cultural pluralism, increase cognitive connections and creativity, enhance and reinforce the skills and strategies that are taught in English, and use the principles of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning. They learn everything from conjugating verbs and other Spanish vocabulary to typical dances and food tastings. My goal is that the students come out with a love of the Spanish and Hispanic culture and language and prepare them for their middle-school foreign language experience.
Over the course of your career, what do you consider one or two of your greatest accomplishments?
In my 14 years of teaching, creating lasting relationships with those that I work with has been key in my development and growth as an educator. It is because of my colleagues that I am who I am as an educator. You can say that I have accomplished becoming an excellent imitator of the superb educators around me. I always give the advice to new teachers to take the time to know and learn from other teachers and school staff, for it truly “takes a village” to get students on the right path to becoming lifelong learners.
What drives you? What keeps you motivated and committed to being a dedicated and hard-working educator?
Hope keeps me always going. Hope in the future. Hope in these young lives that are continuously developing, assimilating, adapting, and learning, and hoping they find joy in it. Hope that they will choose the right path in life. Hope that you can show them ways to reach their goals through education. Hope that you show them hope.
Any special advice for parents on how they can best support their children academically at the grade level you teach? And more generally? And how they can have the most productive relationship with their children’s teacher and school?
As a reading teacher, the best advice that I could give parents is to read to your children and with your children, have your children read to you, chat with them about your favorite books, characters, stories, and connections, and share memories as well as create them. It helps develop character, confidence, and a positive outlook, not to mention develop vocabulary and understanding.
As a foreign language teacher, I recommend providing positive experiences with the culture of that language. From eating ethnic foods, to reading bilingual books and sharing in some of the culture’s celebrations, to planning trips where children speak the target language and giving them opportunities outside to use the language. For parents that speak the target language, speak to them in that language, and encourage them to use it. I always remember my abuelo (grandfather) demanding me to speak to him in Spanish, and how grateful I am to him right now for having done so.
My advice to parents overall when it comes to having the most productive relationship with their children’s teacher and school is to view your child’s teachers and school as teammates working towards the goal of helping your child reach their maximum potential and making your child aware of this powerful partnership.
