Donna Ratner uses a variety of approaches to teach sudents – one of the reasons she was named the "Teacher of the Year."
By: Michael Arges
front of the chalkboard and get immense pleasure from being instrumental
in my friends’ learning something new.’
Go into district "Teacher of the Year" Donna Ratner’s
classroom and you may find her in hospital garb with music from
television’s "General Hospital" playing in the background as she and her
students perform "Operation Conjugation" on Spanish verbs.
Or you may find her students dancing and singing to the
"Mexican Hat Dance" as they conjugate Spanish verbs in the future tense.
Ms. Ratner often does funny little skits with students to illustrate points
about the language and also "to keep them interested, keep them laughing –
making sure that everyone’s having fun," she said.
This Hightstown High School teacher of Spanish believes
she won the "Teacher of the Year" award for East Windsor Regional Schools,
"because I love to teach! And I think that it is very clear to students
when a teacher enjoys – not only enjoys, but really loves what he or she
does."
The special joy of language teaching is that "you can
make it so much fun. You can do so much," Ms. Ratner said. In a given class
period she may use six to eight special activities to help students
understand and assimilate the language. "There are so many ways that you
can present the language, and test the language and have fun with the
language. You have to have a lot of energy and you have to love the
language to be able to have fun with it. The students become extremely
creative when given the right environment and challenges," she added.
Level two students actually seem to enjoy joining in with
her stuffed animals and singing silly songs she has made up using
demonstrative adjectives. "They sing them, and often the next day they say,
‘Oh, can we do that again?’" Ms. Ratner said.
In a statement of her philosophy of teaching, she noted
that she has developed several games to help students learn, including a
board game and her own version of the TV game show "Jeopardy."
And her dedication doesn’t always end with the school day
– she often gives out her home phone number before the midterm and finals
so students can call with questions.
This is the first year Ms. Ratner has used the T. P. R. –
it stands for "Total Physical Response" – method. She speaks in Spanish
while acting out what she is saying, and says students seem to really enjoy
it.
In helping her students reach the next level of
excellence, she not only has gone the extra mile, she has gone the extra
thousand miles. In the past two years, Ms. Ratner has taken two groups of
students to Spain and is planning another spring break trip for next year.
She served as a volunteer, training district first- and
second-grade teachers for the Salsa program, which uses videos to introduce
students to Spanish at an early age. She was involved in putting together
the program and when her day at the high school is finished, she volunteers
to help present the Salsa program in her son’s second-grade class at the
McKnight School.
She came to the district in 1984 as a teacher at
Hightstown High School. In her first few years she taught Spanish and
French. Recently she has focused on Spanish as interest in French declined,
but this coming year she will again teach both Spanish and French.
After graduating the State University of New York at
Albany, she studied in Madrid in the spring of 1991. She has also attended
a summer-long World Languages Professional Development Institute at
Princeton University. Before coming to the East Windsor area, she taught
for two years at the Fontbonne Hall Academy in Brooklyn, N.Y.
"By learning about other people and their cultures, we
can begin to break down the barriers that separate us," Ms. Ratner said.
"We can understand each other and, through understanding, foster tolerance.
By understanding, we can accept each other’s differences."
She recognizes the special advantages of Hightstown
High’s diverse population, and seeks to affirm the Hispanic students in her
classes.
"I use them as resources and I try to make them feel
comfortable and make them feel important," she said. "I try to make them
feel special."
She does wish that more of her students recognized how
important language study could be to them in the future. "I have so many
students who come back – policemen, doctors, lawyers – who say, ‘Gosh, I
wish I had taken Spanish more seriously.’"
Her love of teaching is rooted in her respect and
admiration for her parents, both of whom were teachers. "They were so happy
in their careers, and I saw how much respect they got from their students,
from their colleagues," Ms. Ratner said.
In her professional biography, she recalled that "As a
child I would always play school with younger children and insist on
teaching them math, French or Hebrew. I would stand in front of the
chalkboard and get immense pleasure from being instrumental in my friends’
learning something new." Her chief fulfillment comes from enjoying her
students.
"The students are my reward," she said. "They are my
biggest fans!"