Summer 2004

For generations, the robust learning environment at Hobart and William Smith Colleges has bred exceptional teachers

by Mary LeClair

Michael DeAngelo '88 dissects a shark with his 7th grade science students.

An initial search of the alumni and alumnae directory at Hobart and William Smith yielded hundreds of graduates who have gone on to teach, kindergarten through 12th grade. In writing this article we recognize that just a small sampling of those alums are able to be cited. We offer this piece in tribute of all who teach our future generation.

For eight weeks, students in Michael DeAngelo’s ’88 science class work on an independent study project of their choosing. Some study the physics of throwing a baseball, others research the communication between animals or explore genetics. At the end, students submit a 10-page paper, article summaries, lab reports, a biography, personal reflections, a timeline, as well as make a 45-minute poster presentation, fielding questions and defending what they have learned before a panel of judges. At times the four-person panel is composed of three peers and one outside observer, who can be a Brown University professor or local community leader.

One might be inclined to believe that these science students are in college. But they are not. They are 8th graders in an all-inclusive classroom at Moses Brown Middle School in Providence, R.I., with students from all ranges of abilities.

“When you give kids an opportunity, they do great things,” says DeAngelo. He adds that he’s been astounded by his students’ abilities, and has received portfolios that have been as much as 30 to 50 pages long.

Where does he get the model for the challenging independent study work? Well, he learned that from Professors Tom Glover, Valerie Kish, Steven Kolmes and others in the biology department at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. They put him through the same paces when he presented his work at national science conferences.

DeAngelo is not alone. He stands among a plentitude of HWS alumni and alumnae who teach grades K-12 across the country. The energy, hard work and enthusiasm that they learned at HWS is carried through into their own classrooms. Each school day, they teach students hardcore curriculum, helping them dissect sharks in the lab, grasp Algebra, understand earth science or study Latin. They are innovators, well-educated professionals who push the line on instruction to further expand the definition of exemplary teaching and learning.
While at HWS, many of these alums participated in the education department’s rigorous program, which recently received a boost as the Colleges now offers a master of arts in teaching degree.

Professor Charlie Temple, chair of the education department, is proud of the teacher certification program at HWS and its graduates. In addition to taking seminars on teaching and participating in field work, HWS students have enjoyed the full benefits of a major and minor in the liberal arts, off-campus study and a commitment to service that are the Colleges’ defining features.

“Our graduates are imaginative, intuitive, flexible teachers who learn from experience and continue to seek new ways to excellence,” Temple says. “You don’t find our teachers doing it by the book. They know how to think for themselves—to see the big picture, to be inventive, to draw on known best practices and also to invent their own.”

DeAngelo, for one, loves thinking outside the box. “You have to look at every student and see what they bring to class. The challenge of diversity is to find everyone’s strengths. Everyone has them,” he says.

Leading the Profession

HWS alums stand out among their peers, leading many of the changes that occur in public and private school programs across the continent. Take Robin Dissin Aufses ’71. After almost 20 years of teaching English at Schreiber High School in Port Washington, N.Y., she wanted to be able to have a greater effect on the profession. So she went back to school to get her administrative degree and is now the English department chair at J.F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, N.Y. In her new position, she hires and trains new teachers, observes classes, creates curriculum, and she still gets to teach two Advanced Placement (A.P.) English classes.

She works to ensure all Kennedy High students learn to be rock-solid readers, writers and lovers of literature. “I want the new teachers to understand that it is easy to get away from such basics, but that is what high school English is really all about. You need to get kids interested in the text and develop their reading and writing skills,” Aufses says.

Over the years, when Aufses has been in need of direction, she has thought about her role model—the late Professor Katy Cook, who taught at HWS from 1943 to 1979. Aufses says Cook was tough but compassionate, recalling the time Cook had been proctoring an exam and handed out sodas to all the students.

Diane Schoonover Clarke ’64 has been recognized for excellent teaching in every district she has worked, from Niagara Falls, N.Y., to Plano, Texas. For the past 16 years, Clarke has taught A.P. United States history and 11th grade U.S. history at Bradshaw High School in Florence, Ala., where she serves as head of the social studies department.

On the state and national level, Clarke is a leader. For 12 years, she has served as a faculty consultant for the College Board in A.P. U.S. History. Last year, she was selected as one of the eight teachers to be named Teacher of the Year for the state of Alabama. In 2001, she was named a National Board Certified Teacher in social studies.

The accomplishments of her students also are impressive. While the national average for students passing the A.P. history exam with a 3 or better is about 50 percent, Clarke’s track record surpasses 85 percent.
Ross Amstey ’86, an English teacher at Rush Henrietta High School in Henrietta, N.Y., directs plays, advises classes, leads students on tours of Great Britain, serves as department leader, writes text for humanities classes and scores A.P. exams nationally. He also serves on several committees and presents his work at conferences. The list goes on and on. No wonder he, too, was once named Teacher of the Year.

“The interest in education and the strong commitment to learning, both in the classroom and out, that HWS fosters helps me every day,” says Amstey. “My best moments come when students are excited about the things they do in school and in my classes. I’m thrilled when students return years later and talk about how much they remember and enjoyed my classes, or activities, or plays, or trips. The biggest reward is hearing from students that I’ve made a difference in their lives.”
Since her first year of teaching, when every one of her students passed the New York State Regents exam in earth science, Andrea Christofferson ’99 has been driven by perfection. In addition to offering a series of Regents review classes that begin in April, Christofferson, who teaches at Homer (N.Y.) Central High School, creates day-to-day lessons with PowerPoint, Internet research and lab activities. The year is also filled with outdoor field trips to a local stream, nearby Buttermilk Falls and the Paleontological Research Institute’s Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, as well as the Museum of Natural History in New York City.
“I would say that it really comes down to my work ethic,” says Christofferson, who stays late and works most Sunday afternoons. “I work really, really hard at teaching. I’ve just been determined to do well myself and for my students.”

Uniquely Prepared

The Colleges’ Western Civilization requirement has been a key to success for Carol M. Dunn ’55. Now retired, Dunn taught mostly English and humanities to grades 10 and 12 in New York and Florida. She is the author of the humanities curriculum approved by the Florida State Education Department.

“Humanities is the high school version of Western Civilization. It is a one-year romp through literature, art, philosophy and music from Egypt and the Old Testament to today,” Dunn says. “HWS taught me how to structure a humanities course.”
While Dunn considers developing the humanities curriculum to be one of her greatest accomplishments, she is equally proud of the number of her former students who have gone on to have successful careers, several as teachers.

“To touch lives—that’s a pretty good goal,” she says.
Having spent three years student teaching as undergraduates, Gretchen DeWall ’93 and Jessica Smith ’00 agree that they were uniquely prepared for the classroom. “Working as a teaching assistant gave me the experience and confidence to go into teaching,” DeWall says.

“HWS was a wonderful school for teaching. I was very well prepared when I graduated,” says Smith. “I believe that the intense in-classroom experience that began in my sophomore year gave me excellent hands-on experience with students and teachers.”

From the beginning, Smith took on many responsibilities, such as directing school plays and poetry readings. “I was proud to have felt confident and enthusiastic enough in my first year teaching to take on these endeavors,” she says.

Year after year, Carin Caravita Cunningham ’92 relives her time in the HWS teacher program. She passes the torch to her alma mater by having HWS students in her 4th grade classroom at North Street School in Geneva each semester. This past fall, it was Bridgid Conlon ’05 who worked in Cunningham’s room, team teaching lessons and aiding students in their project work.

Cunningham says her whole world changed after taking her first class with Professor Temple. She discovered that she wanted to teach. Clinching it was the hands-on experience in the classroom.
“The beauty of the program is you come out of it with so much experience,” she says.

Robert Dedrick ’98, a high school earth science teacher in Canandaigua, N.Y., says he teaches today because of Professors John Halfman and Brooks McKinney, who motivated him through their “awesome abilities.”

“It wasn’t just their teaching techniques in the classroom but also their personalities. In a way I try to model my classroom to a similar environment that they created—a place that is great for learning but also a place that I truly enjoyed being,” says Dedrick.

As a 6th grade teacher and department head at Sterling Hall School for Boys in Ontario, Canada, Kate Coleman Nicoll ’74 calls her fieldwork in Geneva’s elementary schools invaluable. “I learned so much from watching other teachers and having them as mentors,” she says.
Nicoll’s was the first class at Hobart and William Smith to graduate with an elementary education certificate. For years HWS had graduated secondary education teachers, but the 12 graduates in the Classes of 1974 were the first to receive elementary certification.

Nicoll says HWS inspired her to be a lifelong learner. She is continually taking classes, attending conferences and reading about topics she teaches.
“You constantly have to be a good student in order to be a good teacher,” she says.

The Changing Times

When Alice S. Burt ’32 graduated from William Smith College in 1932, she went on to earn a library certificate, eventually taking a teaching job in Potsdam, N.Y. In 1938, she was married and did what was proper. She stopped teaching.

“I don’t know of any written restriction against married teachers, but it was generally understood,” says the 95-year-old alumna. “I did hear of teachers who were married secretly and were fired when it was discovered. Those were Depression years, and men needed the jobs. They were still considered the breadwinners of the families.”
Times have changed. While many alums such as Burt and, more recently, Ann Schuyler Brenner ’74, stop teaching or substitute while they raise a family, many are leading the way in adapting to our changing times.

During the more than 20 years she has been teaching, Linda Eberhardt Chilson ’71, a Latin instructor at King Philip Regional High School in Wrentham, Mass., has adapted by using what she learned at HWS. The education she received has helped her deftly handle a curriculum that incorporates culture and history lessons, teaching everything from daily customs to the Roman military.

“There is just a whole different way of teaching that has come along,” Chilson says. “I am delighted that my liberal arts background has given me the intellectual flexibility to be able to do that. I’ve been better able to bring a broader background into the classroom.”
When Chilson started teaching, Latin was reserved for only the “easy or gifted learners.” Today legislation has created inclusive classrooms that have opened foreign languages to all students. The results have been impressive.

“Some kids who have average learning abilities or those with disabilities benefit the most from Latin because it is highly structured, and learning the language often helps them understand the English language better.

“Teaching in an inclusive classroom is very rewarding. Tough, but rewarding,” Chilson says.

Paul Beck ’92, a 7th grade algebra teacher at Elizabeth Hudson School in Long Beach, Calif., credits his late-father and Professors Temple, Pat Collins and John Burns for his successful teaching career. His father, William, professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School who died in 2003, was known for his commitment to quality work, quiet honesty and a marvelous sense of humor, he says.

Adopting a bit of his father’s teaching style and his HWS professors’ enthusiasm for the field, Beck took his first job as a middle school math and science teacher at an inner city school in Los Angeles. He definitely had to adapt to the changing times. He was floored by the cultural differences and the lack of resources; the students lacked textbooks and his room did not have chalk.

He says that while nothing could have prepared him for the situation he walked into, in the end, he discovered a bit about himself. “It turned me into a very resourceful teacher. It was trial by fire, and I had to find my way,” says Beck.

“Teaching is a rewarding job. At the end of the day, the positives always outweigh the negatives.”