Teachers for a day

A collection of community members try out the role of educators, By Aryan Falahatpisheh SPARTA — Seven notable community members spent Thursday, April 7 as teachers through the Teacher For a Day program. They each paired up with a teacher at one of the district schools and spent a week making their lesson plans before going to the schools on Thursday. At the high school, Sparta Deputy Mayor Jerry Murphy taught Craig Merrill’s history classes; Sparta Board of Education President Jennifer Dericks taught Andrew Lowrey’s English classes; B.O.E member Kevin Pollison taught Robert Jones’ history and philosophy classes; and life-long fireman John Rush taught Jamie Barker’s and Kate Brennan’s English classes. At the middle school, business owner and Former Sparta Mayor Ailish Hambell taught seventh-grade civics classes. At Alpine Elementary School, former Senior Citizen of the Year Eileen Francis taught Suzanne Smith’s third grade class. At Helen Morgan Elementary School BOE member Ilse Wolfe was the teacher for Kyle Marcovich’s physical education classes. The Teacher For a Day program was originally conceived by the New Jersey Education Association. Catherine Willie, the organizer of the event and a physical education teacher at Sparta High School, decided to bring it to Sparta. Willie and the Sparta Education Association wanted to participate in response to what Willie sees as a bad reputation of teachers due to the current political climate. She said, “We want people to see that we are doing our best for each of our students, schools, and school district.” Another goal was for community members to see what it is like to teach in 2011 and how education has evolved over the years. Murphy, who is a Sparta High School graduate, noticed many changes. “From the seating arrangements to the textbooks, the handouts, to the dress code, it was dramatically different.” He also mentioned how the teaching atmosphere had evolved and was more friendly and casual. Hambell, who taught Mike Milligan’s seventh-grade classes about the preamble of the United States Constitution, remarked that the day was not only extremely rewarding, it was also very tiring. “I appreciate the energy that a teacher needs to have for what they have to do,” she said. As with the other participants, the children were very well behaved with Hambell. “They really trusted her; they said they did because they could tell she was listening to them,” Milligan said. Many of the community members used their own background to add on to their lesson. Murphy, who is a Vietnam War veteran, connected his lesson on French imperialism of Vietnam to his experiences in the war. Since the class that Hambell taught is so heavily based on the function of American government, Hambell drew upon her experiences as mayor to teach Milligan’s civics class about the way that New Jersey government works at various levels. Pollison showed his great-uncle’s Purple Heart from WWII to add to Jones’ lesson on Pearl Harbor. Dericks, who has a child in college and another getting ready to go to college, used her experiences as a parent to teach a lesson on college essays. There were also many surprises for the participants. For Dericks, it was the fact that the cafeteria food was delicious. For Francis, however, it was the depth of thought of the third graders she taught, who raised questions about topics such as the governmental shut-down and the situation in Lybia. She said, “I was really blown away at how intelligent seven-year-olds are.”

I was really blown away at how intelligent seven-year-olds are.” Eileen Francis