Suzanne Budesa Wins A 2013 Blackboard Award For Teachers

What are some of the key joys and challenges of being a first and second grade teacher?

I love working with this age group because they are so curious about the world and hungry for knowledge, and they are also developing the independence to advocate for their own learning and take charge. They learn how to read, how to express themselves, and how to make friends. They’re doing hard work and I love being there to witness their successes. Sometimes it’s hard to see them struggle—particularly with friendships—but as a class community, we do our best to help each other through it.

Tell us about any special projects or initiatives you are most proud of this year.

This year, I worked with Girls on the Run and a few teachers at the Earth School to start a Girls on the Run Earth School team for third through fifth graders. We met after school and worked on teamwork and building confidence while training for a 5K. It was always so great to see them along the course…and to work with former students.

Over the course of your career, what do you consider some of your greatest accomplishments to date?

The students are by far my greatest accomplishments and what I am most proud of. Over the years we have collected toys to give to local family shelters during the holidays, collected books to send to a library serving the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, written letters to President Obama about pollution, and participated in runs to raise money for local organizations.

What drives you and keeps you motivated to continue your hard work as a teacher on a daily basis?

It’s all about the students. I get so much joy from watching the children grow and accomplish their goals. We have great days, we have hard days, and everything in between, but we do our best to grow from them. We work hard but we also have a lot of fun. Kids can find the joy in anything if they want to, and they just bring me along for the ride. I get so much joy from watching the children grow and accomplish their goals. When they have finally tackled something they have been working hard on, or when they realize they can now do something they hadn’t done before, it makes my job worth it.

For more information about the Blackboard Awards, visit blackboardawards.com

Xaverian High School

A private, co-educational Catholic college preparatory school for grades 6&ndash;12 located in Bay Ridge. Giving students the opportunity to grow in their faith, intellect, leadership skills, musical passions, athletic talents, and much more, in the long standing tradition of the Xaverian Brothers.

The Language Workshop For Children

After offering both group and private lessons for many years and analyzing the results over&nbsp;time, The&nbsp;Language Workshop for&nbsp;Children, founded&nbsp;in1973, has decided&nbsp;to emphasize private remote lessons at shorter intervals.&nbsp;Our skilled educators&nbsp;will&nbsp;focus their attention exclusively on the&nbsp;unique needs, learning style, and interests of your child.&nbsp;This allows a&nbsp;bond&nbsp;to develop&nbsp;between teacher and student, which&nbsp;has been&nbsp;shown to&nbsp;drastically improve retention.&nbsp; OUR METHOD&nbsp; Developed by the pioneers of language education for children, our programs bring decades of&nbsp;experience to your living room with individualized, active language classes. Each lesson is based on proven methods and materials perfected to capture your&nbsp;child&rsquo;s attention during the ages when he/she absorbs information the fastest. &nbsp;&nbsp; While other online language classes rely on videos for passive learning, we deliver interactive, and engaging lessons with native-fluent teachers. In addition, all our teachers are certified in the Thibaut&nbsp;Technique which has been featured&nbsp;in the New York&nbsp;Times, the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal, and many other well-respected&nbsp;publications.&nbsp;&nbsp; Our short one-on-one lessons give kids the chance to focus, hear pronunciation clearly, and practice speaking in their target language.  THE PROCESS&nbsp; First, students have a short meeting with our Director&nbsp;Francois&nbsp;Thibaut, in&nbsp;English, with&nbsp;their parent(s)&nbsp;present.&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut&nbsp;will determine&nbsp;the best course of study, including&nbsp;class length and&nbsp;frequency, the&nbsp;right&nbsp;teacher, lesson&nbsp;format and materials (or action games for younger students.) Then the learning&nbsp;begins!&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut will continually check in on your child&rsquo;s learning to assure they are getting the most&nbsp;of&nbsp;their&nbsp;classes.&nbsp; OTHER OFFERINGS&nbsp; We can also help your child prepare for: the French subject tests for SAT, AP &amp; CLEP, the European DELF/DALF, the Canadian TEF and other standardized testing, college entry exams, studying or traveling abroad,&nbsp;cultural changes when moving abroad,&nbsp;and much more!&nbsp; &nbsp;

The Vincent Smith School

Vincent Smith School is a non-profit, coed, independent school for grades 1-12 that serves students from Nassau, Suffolk, and NYC since 1924. The school is most known for its small classes, supportive staff, and individualized programs for students with learning differences such as Dyslexia/Dyscalculia/Dysgraphia, as well as school anxiety, school reluctance, or ADHD.&nbsp; We emphasize academic, college-prep success through differentiated instruction and on-site services as needed for reading, speech, or OT in dedicated classrooms. VSS offers rolling admissions throughout the year at our scenic Port Washington campus. &nbsp;