South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • 62

SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL 8E Wednesday, June 5, 2002 NWS LIFESTYLE The best teachers inspire their students to want to learn mmm iiiiimvMwuwum jlhwi y-u TEACHERS CONTINUED FROM PAGE IE i NE CREST CHIP OFF THE OLD BOOK: When Jaimie Crawford, left, was a student at Pine Crest and Ann Birr was her English teacher. Birr taught Crawford a love for literature and inspired her to become a teacher. Now they both teach at Pine Crest. Staff photoRobert Azmitia well. Your penmanship and the way you write is as wonderful as the way you speak." The British educational system I came from and would return to isn't known for compliments.

Her warm and encouraging compliment at a time when I really needed it was a gift that propelled me even in adulthood. Miss Cipriani taught me that giving a compliment when it is really needed is a gentle strength that touches one's life long after the' moment is over. Twan Russell, 28, Fort Lauderdale, linebacker for the. Miami Dolphins. Mary Modic, English teacher at St Thomas Aquinas High, was one of those teachers a lot of people didn't like.

She pushed people harder than they thought they could be pushed. When I first got into her class, I was getting Cs and borderline Ds. She knew I could do better because of the determination I applied to sports. She went to my coach and said, "I see more potential than a in this kid." I was always defeated when it came to writing. I was always behind the curve.

She took the time to work with me on some things. She gave me the motivation to go on to college, where my minor was creative writing. I learned from her there was nothing I couldn't do. I don't know if she remembers this, but I do. I know what she did for me was important Grcuit Judge Miette Bumstein, Hollywood Mrs.

Jessie Troupe taught English at South Broward High School in Hollywood. This was back in the '50s, but she came up with the program that all schools 1 came home from a ball field made me hide from him. Although I loved school, I treated my classmates as nasty competitors who could make it even more difficult for my dad to like 4 me. yMTM Then here came Miss Rockefeller. ft -i is ff ft Jaimie Crawford, 33, Lighthouse Point Ann Birrgavemetwoofthebest gifts I've ever received: a passion for words and a desire to share this passioa Ann, English teacher at Pine Crest Preparatory School, Fort Lauderdale, is insightful and intuitive.

Open-minded, she rewards fresh thinking but refuses to accept mediocrity. The paper on John Lennon's lyrics I pored over for hours every day for nearly a month was slapped with a My response was to simply work harder. Although she taught me more than 1 5 years ago, I still recall a lesson she presented comparing Kate Chopin and Virginia Woolf. She spoke about Kate Chopin as if she were speaking of a sister, a best friend, a confidante. As Ann compared Chopin to Atwood and Morrison and Austen the class began to raise their hands, and the lecture evolved into a multifaceted debate of women's rights.

Ann made knowledge accessible and exciting for her students. Now I am Ann's colleague, and I still visit her classroom. Ann not only teaches literature, she teaches others how to share the gifts she has given. Kay Chirichigno, 41, Parkland Many successes in my life I owe to Caroline Brass, my ninth-grade government teacher in Bastrop, La. She was an articulate, confident African-American woman whom I absolutely adored.

She demanded straight A's, which I delivered. She instilled in me the desire to attend college. I graduated from the University of Louisiana at Monroe because of her powerful influence. She coached me in a speech I delivered for a pageant that won first place. She helped me to become one of three soloists who sang at a Louisiana statewide singing competition.

Our group took first place. Brass told me at the age of 14 that I had the writing skills of a 40-year-old and encouraged me to become a writer. Today, lama romance and children's writer. She taught me to "reach for the stars," but in reality Caroline Brass will always be my shining star. Josh Gutstein, senior at North Broward Prep, Boca Raton Twice I have had Bruce Pachter, for chemistry in 1 0th grade and currently for anatomy and physiology.

Whenever I am worried or want to confide in someone other than my family, he is the one I turn to. In fact he and his wife are coming to my graduation party. Whenever I have free time, I spend it with him. After I finish a math exam that I think I did bad on, I come into Dr. Packer's room and tell him about how worried I am to receive the grade the next day.

With a bright smile he says, "Hey Josh, I was never good in math either. Don't worry about it and just relax." He is like a dad to me in school. them. Many days she'd exchange her spindly high heels for a pair of running shoes and join us at recess for a game of soccer. She encouraged us to pursue our dreams and always be true to who we were.

Her example of patience, kindness, understanding and compassion has inspired me to want to become a teacher. (1) Bar! Laakmann, 53, Coconut Creek In Huntington Station, N.Y, Healey had the reputation of being the meanest strictest fifth-grade teacher in the school. She was not very attractive and seemed to always havea stem look upon her face. As. fourth-graders, we quaked in our boots fearing assignment to her dass.

As luck would have it, I was one of the blessed" ones who found her name on my report card for the next term. Needless to say, the summer was not one of my best, preparing myself for the horrors I was sure awaited me in September. I was totally wrong. Mr Healey was a tough teacher. She had high expectations, but was nurturing and kind.

I loved that woman. She was a stronger influence on me than I realized because now I am a teacher. I teach elementary school. I believe in my students. I believe in their potential.

I am there to nurture and guide them and help them believe in themselves. Thank you, Mrs. Healey, for being an excellent role model. 1 1 Sharon G. Hodges, 57, Deerfield Beach Mis.Taylor,afifthjradeteacherat Fairiawn Elementary in Miami, was tall and thin with shoulder-length blond hair rapidly going to gray.

Soft-spoken and serious-minded, she seldom 1 smiled or volunteered praise. I did not particularly like her but I did, in fact, like school. I remember how surprised I was when she chose me the class librarian, which allowed me to spend a few minutes each afternoon at the back of the room tending to several shelves of small, soft-cover books. I loved to read but, along with the rest of the dass, I tired of writing the book reports she demanded every two weeks. And then one morning late in the school year she summoned me to her desk Her usually tired eyes told me this was serious.

I was scared to death. "Sharon," she said, "I enjoy your book reports. Have you ever thought about becoming a writer?" And then she smiled. Today, I am a writer and editorial consultant Peter Ebbitt, 51, Boca Raton Conrad Knott taught a special education class for the seventh grade. He was given the task of educating a group of the worst students the school could provide.

Some were violent, some had learning disabilities, some had emotional problems, and others like myself were simply not interested in school. There was a fight or some other emotional outburst almost every day. How Mr. Knott I gained control over this terrible situation is still a mystery to me. I recall he encouraged me to read if IS m'J A it GIVING BACK: Miami Dolphin Twan Russell is thankful for the push he got from teacher Mary Modic at St.

Thomas Aquinas High, and now mentors others. Here he talks with Rock Island Elementary students Anita Mcintosh and Zara Shirley in 2000. Staff file photoMike Stocker have now. The AandB students were sent out to do individual projects. She'd say to me, "Read at least three books by Edgar Allen Poe and see if you see a theme if -at ft My teacher moved into our apartment house and got to know my family.

With wisdom and warmth, she quietly unearthed our problem. She began to work on my father. He respected her book learning. A few months later, when I brought my report card home, Dad said, "That's great How about celebrating tomorrow after your football game, which I would like to see." Mom and Miss Rockefeller were there to hear my Dad scream, Thaf my son." Jan Gens, 49, Deerfield Beach Our 10-year-old son Ronald Schultheiss is completing fourth grade at Deerfield Beach Elementary and has spent what he calls the greatest year of his life with a teacher who has changed him forever. In kindergarten, Ronald was diagnosed with ADHD.

Although he was medicated, he was a poor student and a constant behavior problem. Nothing we did to help Ronald seemed to work until he met Mrs. Jasmin Deboo. The moment Mrs. Deboo entered Ronald's life last September, we saw a change.

He went from a child who was very unhappy, lacking confidence with very few friends to a student who has achieved higher grades and received several awards throughout the school year, including the Sun-Sentinel's Kids of Character award. This teacher cleverly won his heart and was able to show him the way to enjoy school and become competitive with his ideas, art skills, imagination, and most importantly, his desire to learn. Karen Chin, 47, Coconut Creek Sister Frances Alice taught at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Opa-locka in the 1960s. She would play sports with us during recess, which was way too cool because I don't think any of the other teachers did. I can still picture her playing Softball, swinging at the ball and her habit frying.

She would be giggling and running and you couldn't help but love her. Most of all though, she encouraged me to grow spiritually. She had such a love for the Lord and it showed. Adele Brassier, 92, Boca Raton I came from Poland when I was 1 0 years old. Someone took me to school to register On Newark, J.

and they brought me right into Grace Fenderson's second-grade class. She was black, and she was the greatest, kindest woman. I was very big. I didn't speak a word of English and I was a little frightened. She would say, "Sit down, we're going to do good work today." She taught me English.

She said you are going to graduate grade school and you're going to high school. Within a few months, they promoted me from second to fourth grade. But I'd go back to her whenever there was something I didn't understand. She'd come to my house to see if I was studying, she came for visits, for holidays. I never forgot her.

She and her husband and were tall, large women who wore dresses clearly at least 25 years old, used no makeup except vibrant red lipstick, and had very outdated hairstyles. They both lived at home with their elderly father, and drove a car that must have been new when their father was a young man. Virginia Jayne's humor and outlandish behavior impressed me to no end. Here was a woman strong, opinionated, successful who simply did not care what other people thought She had no husband to "take care of her" and clearly did not need one. I was mesmerized by that Good Southern girls deferred to convention, sat quietly and called no attention to themselves.

She was truly larger than life. Even now, if I run into a situation that intimidates me, I think "What would Miss Jayne do?" She taught me that to be yourself is appropriate, awesome, and even fun at a time in my life when I felt self-conscious and insecure. Donna Bailey, 50, Coral Springs My third-grade teacher was also my son's third-grade teacher. Mrs. Janet Abbott taught in Weymouth, Mass.

I am 50 and my son is 32 years old and we still keep in touch with her. The first day of class, she told us her name and then pointed to a big sign on the wall that said "respect" By the end of that school year, we all knew what that big word meant She showed us every day deep respect and lots of love. John P. Dinkel, 76, Plantation My father. Paul W.

Dinkel, principal of Trinity Lutheran School in Marysville, Ohio, taught fourth, fifth and sixth grades in one of two rooms that made up the school. I was not particularly fond of having him for my teacher, because I was used as an example when I was unruly or disobedient He was a very strict disciplinarian and expected his students to give their best If that was not good enough to keep pace, he would work individually with the child until he or she became a competitive student He built a sense of accomplishment and pride in all his students, under very challenging conditions with extremely limited facilities. her son came to my wedding. Years ago, my brother and I went to her funeral. Florence Scavelli, 81, Sunrise Lakes In kindergarten and the beginning of first grade, I hated my teacher and I hated school.

I'd ask to go to the bathroom and I'd run away. They'd send the police to look for me and to bring me back to school. Then my mother died. I was only 6 and I was very attached to my mother. My father then moved.us from that school district to another in Manhattan.

There I had the nicest; sweetest teacher in the world. She'd see me coming to school, and she'd say, "How pretty you look, Florence. You're doing very good, Florence." She knew my mother died, and she went out of her way to be extra kind to me. She made me want to stay in school. After that I was on the honor roll.

I ended up in high school skipping a year. I did extremely well. Only because of that one teacher. I was very stubborn and I really think she made the difference between me being in jail, and me being a good person. Pedro Cevallos, 27, Weston Mr.

Sadowski taught fifth grade at Kendall Lakes Elementary. He was my first teacher when I came to this country from Ecuador. Not only was he patient but he tailored the lessons to me because he knew I was limited in my English. He really cared about what he did and the kids in his class. He inspired me to become a teacher.

I think he represents the best of who we educators are. Stacey Friedman, 23, Deerfield Beach Attila Matusek, who taught printing at my high school in Sewell, made me a more positive person. He taught me that as long as you know what you want and as long as you believe in yourself, you can do anything. Toni Carroll, 47, North Lauderdale Virginia Jayne, my ninth-grade algebra teacher and 1 1th grade English and literature teacher in Ashland, Ky, was one of two schoolteacher spinster sisters. They running Burnstein through them and tell me about it" We were completely and totally left alone.

and were remedial students. She'd sit with them and go over the basics. They got 90 percent of her attention. students were a combination of the two. She'd give them less sophisticated projects and some remedial work.

She was the only teacher in that classroom and she handled all three groups. What Mrs. Troupe did was instill in me not a love of reading, which I already had, but an appreciation in my own ability to fend for myself. She made us independent and she made us aware that English and reading were important subjects and they would stand us in good stead throughout our lives. Jerome Tanzer, 77, Delray Beach I was in junior high in Passaic, NJ, and I stuttered terribly.

I couldn't read. I couldn't speak. Miss Breen came into my room one day, and the teacher asked me to read something from Ivanhoe. I couldn't get a word out Miss Breen asked me to come at lunchtime to her office. She was a speech therapist She was wonderful.

She turned my life completely around. What she had me do was tap out the words with my finger and sing. For 2Vi years, I sat with her at lunchtime and after school. By singing, I lost my stutter and little by little, I began to talk. Hal Birgenthal, 77, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea I was a good student but I adored sports of all kind.

My father was an immigrant and, evidently, he had a pre-determined path for me, and my education. Whenever I brought a graded exam or a report card home, my father's response was, "Did anyone get a better grader No embrace, no compliment Likewise, his look of displeasure whenever I Harold Sacks, 82, Coconut Creek When I was a junior in high school in Brooklyn, my father died. He left my mother, my younger sister and myself as survivors. I felt I had to leave school to earn money to support the family. Helen Blakely, my Latin teacher, was so kind.

She took an interest in me, pleaded with me to continue with school, told me that life had more interesting rewards than being untrained and unschooled. She got me an after-school job in the teacher's dining room and continuously impressed me with the advantages of having a college education. After the Army, I attended college at night and worked during the day. She continuously called me and asked about my progress. When I told her I was entering law school, she was delighted.

I felt she was responsible for my achieving my goals. Deborah Rozanski, 49, Pembroke Pines comic books such as Batman and Superman. We would have lengthy discussions about the characters and the stories. By the end of the school year, I was reading Herman Melville', Mark Twain and other wonderful dassics. Mr.

Knott opened a world to me that I would have never seen without hfs help. His love of learning infects, me to this very day. It was a gift without measure and with any luck I will pass this gift on to my own I children and theirs to theirs. Bunnie Willis, 47, Margate'- My third-grade teacher in Woodbridge, Miss RussoMrs. Reilly (she got married during that particular school year) introduced me to the wonderful world of reading.

She encouraged us to read, and told us that we would have a friend for life. While the neighbor kids may not be available to play, or if you didn't have a lot of friends because you were shy, a book would always be there to take you places you had never been or may never get to see. To this day, I always have a book by my bedside and one to take with me almost everywhere I go. Going to a library or a bookstore remains one of my favorite things to do because I know I will find adventure, romance, andor thrills all wrapped up in a book Annette Wilson, 46, Plantation As we walked into our ninth-grade English class at Allapattah Jr. High, there stood a 4-foot 8-inch Jewish; lady, and she greeted each of us cheerfully.

After we had taken our seats, she placed a chair at the front of the class, stood in the chair, and waited for us to get quiet When we did, she said, "I may be tiny, but I have three teenagers that are much taller. They respect me and you will respect me. I am the boss in this class and ypu will learn in this class." Well, that was that Before the yar was out our class sang Simon and Garfunkel's Sound of Silence at an assembly, accompanied by her oldest son on guitar. Each of us had to learn to sing a Christmas carol, phonetically, in another language. Mine was Oh' Come All Ye Faithful in Latin, and to this day, it is my all-time favorite carol.

She introduced me to words, music and books I may never have otherwise encountered. Brother Harris still pushing kids to excel I often wonder if Mrs. Ernestine Goldstein sixth-grade teacher in Brooklyn saw beyond the exterior of inexpensive clothing and shyness, and intuitively knew the torture of emotional abuse and screaming and beating I inexplicably suffered at home. Mrs. Goldstein was a gem, an angel.

She nurtured compassion toward others. She loved people of all backgrounds and wanted her sixth-graders to be aware of the world. Every morning, she had us read The New York Times. Our corkboards were full of information about other countries and people. My wonderment about and appreciation for other cultures continue to this day.

I am noncompetitive, I do volunteer work, I like to encourage children and help the downtrodden, I am a lover of animals and nature. That is her legacy. Rebecca Karram, 19, Boca Raton Mrs. Capparelli was my lovable second-grade teacher. Every morning as her students walked through the classroom door at Boca Raton Christian School, she would greet each with one of her famous teddy bear hugs.

Occasionally, she'd top it off with a kiss that often left an imprint of bright red lipstick on the forehead. Mrs. Capparelli made school interesting and exciting. To help us learn addition and subtraction we'd go shopping at the class grocery store which basically consisted of a bunch of empty boxes with price tags on So when my brother, Steven, said, "I'll print a copy and take it to him," I was surprised. He's still around? "Yep.

He's still there. Still teaching. He's still exactly how you remember him." Now that's scary, but in a sort of way. Thanks, Brother Harris, and all the teachers who, like you, pushed kids like me to be better than we thought possible. called him Brother Harris.

Each week he'd give us seven to 10 vocabulary words, sometimes less, and we'd add them to the previous week's list. Soiree, nepotism, nemesis, panache, colloquial are a few examples of the words he used to torment us. At the end of the school year, we had more than 180 words. We studied Sophocles, Emerson, Thoreau. When I finally got an A in his class, I knew I'd earned it.

I sat in his classroom determined to succeed, and with his help, I did. It's been years since I've seen Brother Harris, more like a few decades. Still, I think about his class a lot. WINSTON CONTINUED FROM PAGE IE When I shrugged, she said there was nothing wrong with being a secretary, but she told me not to limit myself. Then she passed out Twizzlers to students who scored best on their quizzes.

In eighth grade, Mrs. Western, our civics teacher, read the Detroit News to us almost daily. The newspaper was far less boring than our textbook, so we'd ask as many questions as possible about items she read in hopes she'd totally forget we had a textbook. Sometimes it actually worked. And then there was Mr.

Smith, the teacher all the students wanted as a friend. He thought he looked like Billy Dee Williams. I thought it was sad he would want to look like Billy Dee Williams. Still, I took his history class in both middle and high school, and he was always ready to inspire me. However, of all the teachers who made strong impressions, it was Brother Harris who truly lighted a spark.

When he talked, sometimes he sounded like he was humming. He called us all "Brother or Sister So-and-so." Well, he didn't say the so-and-so part, he'd use our last names, but you get the idea. That's why we Sherri Winston 's column appears on Wednesdays in Lifestyle. She can be reached at954-356-4108or.