Power of a Teacher

July 13, 2009

Dear Editor:

As a mother whose two daughters have just successfully completed the fourth and sixth grades at Bais Rivkah, I first wish to acknowledge my ongoing gratitude to both the school and all of the teachers for another magnificent job of inculcating my girls with the finest education in limudei kodesh and secular studies, in tandem with the values befitting true bnos Yisroel.

I would like to use this forum to publicly express my profound admiration for the teachers who taught my younger daughter this past school year at Bais Rivkah. Each one of these outstanding educators – Morah Vechter, Miss. Okunov, Morah Heller and Morah Wilhelm – have succeeded at combining an unusual level of personal concern for each student’s emotional well-being with innovative teaching techniques that challenge them to grow intellectually while mastering the basic curriculum. In fact, I can cite several specific examples of actions that they took which highlight my glowing assessment of these teachers’ professional demeanor.

Morah Vechter has time and again demonstrated over this past year her innate capacity to seamlessly blend old-fashioned scholastic methods with a keen insight into the mindset of today’s youth. When I met with her at the school’s PTA meeting, she impressed me by pointing out my daughter’s slouching posture in the classroom and citing that as a likely impediment to my daughter’s ability to have her full concentratation on the subjects under discussion. Separately, Morah Vechter utilized her teaching of Nevi’im to focus on specific words in the text and explain how their meaning is relevant to their everyday lives. Morah Vechter was able to capitalize on Chana’s innate talents and thereby demonstrated her willingness to “go the extra mile” and select particular aspects of classroom activity as lessons for greater improvement make Morah Vechter a mechaneches par excellence.

Throughout the semester, Miss Okunov steadfastly built up a relationship with my daughter and her classmates that caused them to implicitly respect their teacher and trust that she only had their best interests at heart. This ever-deepening connection reached a peak when, after many occasions wherein Miss Okunov taught her students a number of Jewish songs, she surprised them with a special trip to a recording studio. During this outing, my daughter and her peers were afforded the unique opportunity to learn about and practice utilizing modern recording equipment. As I and other parents can testify, this experience added immeasurably to the students’ self-confidence and ability to feel comfortable with contemporary technology.

Morah Heller’s creativity and devotion to her students’ advancement was, in my opinion, especially highlighted when she recruited her class to participate in an “Aseres HaDibros” project. Working closely and painstakingly with each student to bring out their creative abilities, Morah Heller elicited a number of wonderful artistic “productions.” In particular, I was greatly pleased with the results of her work with my daughter – a Power Point presentation on the topic that, to be honest, exceeded the expectations I had for my daughter in this regard.

Last but certainly not least, Morah Wilhelm has continued to make an indelible mark at Bais Rivkah in the multiple roles she takes on. As the school’s Vice-Principal, she organizes the Rosh Chodesh davening in a manner that takes everyone into consideration – she enables the mothers to daven with their children and she instills confidence in the talmidos by having a small group of students lead the tefillos over the microphone. As my daughter’s parshah teacher this past year in the sixth grade, Morah Wilhelm consistently taught the parshah by interpolating an applicable sichah of the Rebbe in a dynamic fashion. Moreover, she always displayed an unusual amount of concern for the girls’ personal development, giving them the extra love and encouragement that they needed as bas mitzvah girls entering a challenging stage of growth in life. After Pesach, this dedicated educator was able to make Pirkei Avos come alive for her students by assigning them to create artistic projects based on particular mishnayos from its text. The results were subsequently displayed in the halls of Bais Rivkah as well as published in the school’s newsletter. I was so impressed when my daughter Zelda, together with two of her friends, produced a poster vividly encapsulating the theme of “Al Tadin Es Chaveircha…” Thanks to Morah Wilhelm’s expert teaching skills, each of her students were empowered to apply their specific creative talents to produce a team-oriented project of lasting educational value. And as if all of this were not enough, on those occasions when the physical education teacher was unable to be present, Morah Wilhelm would simply don her sneakers and join the girls for a game or an exercise routine. She has truly shown that she understands the concept of “one being” – i.e. all of a student’s needs must be met, including physical, mental, emotional and spiritual, in order to facilitate comprehensive growth and maturation.

Overall, I believe that the collective behavior of these four educators vividly demonstrates the reality that a teacher is actually a “coach” and personal mentor to her students. Every teacher ultimately imparts a lesson to each of their students – through their interactions with students and their teaching methods – in how to appropriately behave within the outside world. Similarly, teachers have the power to enable their young pupils to develop a healthy amount of self-esteem that will help their maturity into well-functioning adults. I am forever grateful to each of these teachers for conveying these capacities so productively over this past school year.

Sincerely,
Chaya Abelsky