Four named Manville Teachers of the Year.
By: Emily Craighead
There is little glamour in teaching, but those who love it like Manville’s teachers of the year Erin Delaney, Steve Venuto, Madeleine Perry and Natalia Kish don’t mind.
"You don’t go into teaching looking for recognition," said Ms. Delaney, Governor’s Teacher of the Year at Alexander Batcho Intermediate School (ABIS). "Special education is very challenging, but the rewards are incredible."
Ms. Delaney is in the midst of her fifth year teaching at ABIS. She came to Manville right out of college and said she looks forward to coming to school every day.
"I tell the kids all the time, when I wake up I picture their faces," Ms. Delaney said. "I’m learning every day from the kids themselves."
Ms. Delaney usually has nine students at a time in her classroom, and she teaches students in grades six, seven and eight.
The most important part of her job, she said, is making her classroom student-friendly.
"Right away I let the kids know I’m here for them. I explain to them I’ve been in their shoes when school can be frustrating," Ms. Delaney said.
The best way to get through to many of her students, she said, is to relate sports to the classroom, encouraging students to work together as a team.
Mr. Venuto, teacher of the year at Manville High School, knows all about teams.
A health, physical education and driver education teacher, Mr. Venuto is also head baseball coach at the high school and formerly coached football and wrestling. The two go hand in hand, he said. "Coaching is teaching and teaching is coaching."
The key, Mr. Venuto said, is to balance the fine line between respect and authority, not to be a dictator, but to make students understand what they need to do to succeed.
After 12 years of teaching at Manville High School, Mr. Venuto estimates he has seen 4,800 students pass through the halls, and watching those students grow up is one of the greatest rewards of the job, he said.
Recently, a former student now stationed in Pakistan with the Marine Corps called Mr. Venuto for a recommendation to become an officer.
"I like knowing I might have had an impact, whether in the classroom or sports," he said.
Ms. Kish conquered classroom management to become Roosevelt School’s teacher of the year.
Ms. Kish teaches fourth- and fifth-grade students with multiple disabilities, and keeping everyone on task, making sure each student meets his or her goals for the day requires careful planning.
"If you can stay consistent, that’s best for the kids," Ms. Kish said.
Ms. Kish said her two assistants, Carol Drummond and Stacey Forke provide aid that is essential to making the class run smoothly.
"I don’t think anybody would be able to do something without the support I have from everyone from the principal to the lunch assistants," Ms. Kish said.
Madeleine Perry, kindergarten teacher at Weston, also praised her colleagues when she found out she was named a Governor’s Teacher of the Year.
"I was a little embarrassed since I know that I work with amazing, dedicated educators who all deserve recognition for the wonderful job they do each day," Ms. Perry said in an article on the Manville school district Web site.
A Weston teacher since 2002, Ms. Perry focuses on community service in her classroom. The Somerset County United Way has awarded Ms. Perry grants to promote character education in her classroom through service projects.