Editor’s note: To read profiles of all 2016 Blackboard Awards honorees, click HERE!
Molida Khuon
Grade 3, French Immersion
International School of Brooklyn
Tell us about some of the special joys and challenges you’ve experienced as a teacher.
For a teacher every year is different and exciting. In August, you come back from your vacation, you are happy to see your former and new colleagues, you arrange your class by moving the desks and the chairs, and you get new materials—it’s like preparing a show. When you have the list of your new students, you talk about them with their former teachers, you hear about which one improved all year long, which one used to struggle with math, which one needs to be supported in reading, and which one loves being challenged with deeper activities. Then after several days of preparation, it’s time for you to go on stage.
Please share a special project or achievement that you are particularly proud of from this year.
My students have pen pals in France and are always excited to receive and send letters. After the terrorist attacks happened in France last November, they were especially touched by the letters they received from their pen pals. Reading the letters raised many questions for my students and I was moved by their desire to discuss why and how these things can happen in the world, particularly around such tragedies. I am so proud to be one of the people in their lives who talks to them about being a global citizen of the world.
Over the course of your career, what do you consider your greatest accomplishments?
Coming to live in Brooklyn [from France] is the most recent accomplishment that I am proud of—immersing myself in another culture and language just as many of my students are doing is a real source of pride for me when they come to school every day. I learn every day from my American and other international coworkers about different ways to teach.
What keeps you motivated and committed to being a dedicated and hard-working educator?
I have always said that a good educator requires the balance of a team, one that you can work and share with. When I talk about a team, I want to mention all of my colleagues, from the teacher who is going to share his/her experience with me to the staff member who is going to do his/her best to facilitate my life at school.
