CA Pride - Miriam Hartman

Miriam Hartman thought she was ready to retire after a successful career as librarian with Portsmouth Public Schools. But she was not quite certain she was ready to give up working with students. Fortunately for me, Mrs. Hartman happens to be a close friend of our former librarian, Kathy Batkin, who knew exactly how she was feeling. Mrs. Batkin suggested that Mrs. Hartman should join the CA faculty and staff on a part time basis and keep the best of both worlds: The flexibility of retirement coupled with the joy of working with young students.

I think all of our faculty will agree that Mrs. Hartman became a valued member of our staff so quickly that we often forget that this is her first year with us. She works closely with our elementary faculty to ensure that our library collection is well maintained and updated. She is the "go to" person when we are seeking resources on certain topics. She oversees our AR program for elementary students. Our young students look forward to her regular visits to read and discuss books with them. In March, Mrs. Hartman presented an excellent program for parents and students about the importance of "raising a reader".

Being librarian at CA is certainly a different experience from running a more conventional library in a larger elementary school. She has to oversee and coordinate a library collection of several thousand books that is housed in different classroom libraries. To say that Mrs. Hartman had to adapt her approach to her work may be an understatement. Yet, she embraced this new opportunity with such a positive, flexible attitude and is adding her own special touches.

Mrs. Hartman’s commitment extends beyond her responsibilities as librarian. She quickly became a part of our CA community in a number of ways. We started to get to know her even before she was officially on our staff. She attended last year’s school auction just after accepting the position for the coming year. Since then, she has supported school events as fully as she is able. She is always quick to offer assistance when she observes a teacher, staff member, or student who appears to need an extra hand. What I appreciate about this is that in Mrs. Hartman our students not only have a person who inspires them to read, but they also have a great role model to be a caring, helping person. Now that is what I call fostering a love of learning.

CA PRIDE - CAROLINA BHAN

I first met Carolina Bhan last year when she taught a Zumba class for our afternoon Adventure Kids class. It was exciting to just walk through the room. It was filled with so much energy, music, and fun that I wanted to join in with the class. When I found out that she also is a qualified, experienced teacher I knew I had the perfect person to teach Spanish for us.

Señorita Bhan is from Spain. She has degrees from Conservatorio Real De Musica, Manuel de Falla, Universidad De Cadiz, and Facultad De Ciencias de la Educacion. She was a music and elementary teacher at El Centro Inglés/escuela De Música y Danza Paso A Dos before moving to the United States. We currently share her with the Montessori Preparatory School.

Señorita Bhan told me when she first joined our faculty that she was excited to share her personal experiences growing up in Spain with our students. When I have a chance to stop in and visit her class, I always find that she is sharing many interesting stories, customs, and experiences. Her instruction is focused on helping our students develop a Spanish vocabulary including the definition, spelling and pronunciation as well as learning to appreciate Spanish culture.

Señorita Bhan loves music and is a musician herself. Each Wednesday, she along with Mrs. Crandall, fills our halls with the sound of Spanish music. Music is a wonderful way to enrich our students experience of the Spanish culture and to expand their vocabulary . Most of all it is fun to sing and move to these Spanish songs.

When Señorita Bhan joined our staff in September, she was faced with the challenge of getting know 87 students in five different grades, becoming familiar with the CA schedule, and planning a Spanish Christmas program She approached all of this with a smile and positive attitude. When she can, she comes to school for other events so that she can get to know the students better as well as the culture of the school. She has helped at some of the CARES CLUB  and the running club meetings. It was great for our students to have their Spanish teacher running with them and cheering them on as they prepared for the Operation Smile Final Mile. Now that is what I call fostering a love of learning.

CA PRIDE - MARY LOU WILSON

If you want to become an excellent reader and writer, you should sign up for Mrs. Wilson's first grade language arts class! Mary Lou Wilson has taught first grade students reading, writing, and oral language skills for 25 years at CA. The result is students who have the best possible foundation for their future academic success.

Mrs. Wilson’s first association with CA was through enrolling her daughter in our Pre-K class. It did not take long for my predecessor, Dottie Seward, to discover that she had a parent volunteer who was not only an experienced teacher, but also a reading specialist. Mrs. Wilson was quickly added to the faculty. Her expertise as a reading specialist has served CA well over the years. She is regularly consulted by other teachers and me when a student in any grade has difficulty with reading. She also does the reading assessment for most of our new students coming in to CA.

Mrs. Wilson also teaches first grade math. When she took on this new challenge in 2008, she was excited to have the opportunity to participate in two days of workshops on Everyday Math. She came back ready to help first grade students build just as strong a foundation in math skills as in language arts.

You may not be aware that Mrs. Wilson has administrative responsibilities as well. She is the Language Arts Lead Teacher. In this role, she works with language arts teachers to ensure continuity in instruction through all of the grades. She is the primary mentor for our new elementary teachers. All in all, Mrs. Wilson is a leader among our faculty who is admired and respected by her peers. Along with steering committee co-chair, Leigh-Ann Hartley, she worked tirelessly to lead our faculty and trustees through a self study process to successfully earn our initial VAIS accreditation in 2005. She has played a major role in our subsequent re-accreditation in 2010 and preparation for our upcoming visit in 2015. She has served on one accreditation team for another school.

These extra responsibilities do not diminish her commitment to her students. First grade students always come first. She does not just teach by the "book", she is constantly finding ways to enrich the learning experience with special projects, fun events, and field trips. It is not enough to read about plants, but we should also plant them and watch them grow. It is not enough to count paper ice cream scoops, but perhaps we should eat some real ice cream scoops. It is not enough to read about an artist' painting technique, we should try to make our own masterpieces using that technique ourselves. Now that is what I call fostering a love of learning.