• 2006 Caverly Recipient: Ellen Goldberg
• 2006 Caverly Recipient: Pat Herrington 
• Adam Russell Gelfand Fellowship Awarded
• I Teach Because...
• Notes from the President
• New Board Members Elected
• Brookline Music School Wins a Mini!

On April 8, 2006, the Brookline Education Foundation celebrated 25 years of making a difference in the Brookline Public Schools with a Gala and "Auction for Education." The theme of the evening was "I teach because...."

The live, silent, and online auctions raised over $125,000—more than we ever imagined!

Ellen Goldberg, a legend in early childhood teaching in Brookline, received a Caverly Award in May. She is the first Brookline Early Education Program (B.E.E.P.) teacher honored with this much coveted recognition.

Known initially as the "play lady" to a class of 12 preschoolers in the Lincoln School nurse's office, Ellen was at the vanguard of the quality preschool movement. After 30 years in the field (20 of them in Brookline), Ellen says she still has "the ultimate respect for play."

Clearly her colleagues, parents, and students have the ultimate respect for Ellen. One parent of a learning-challenged child says of Ellen's legendary rapport with her students and compassion for their families, "You turn to anyone and everyone to help you find answers, but you discover that the only one with answers is the one who finally asks your child the right questions . . . that is who we found when we found Ellen Goldberg."

Ellen's journey in early childhood education has been shaped by her passion for classroom inclusion. Ellen's preschool classroom--the first in Brookline--was soon chosen by the Department of Education to pilot Project Impact, a study of inclusive preschool teaching. As a result of Ellen's expertise and success, inclusive early childhood classrooms became a Brookline tradition--before they were even a hope in many other communities. One of Ellen's colleagues says that, "the children in her class develop a sense of compassion, caring, and respect for human differences that I did not think possible for three-to-five-year-olds."

Ellen's master teaching now extends to Brookline High School where, for the past 10 years, she has taught at the Child Study Center, an early childhood teaching lab for high-school students interested in the field. Here the early childhood educators of tomorrow have the chance to see Ellen's dynamic teaching in action, and to learn from a gifted and giving educator who believes in teaching "our children to dream with eyes wide open, to recognize their potential and the potential of others who work collaboratively to make a positive difference in the world."

Ellen Goldberg transforms the lives of our youngest students and their families. Bravo and thank you, Ellen.

"Engaging, creative, loving, compassionate"--these are just a few of the adjectives that describe Pat Herrington, according to her Brookline High School colleagues and students. Pat, a Spanish teacher and member of the Brookline World Language Department since 1984, can now add a Caverly Award to her long list of teaching honors.

Pat, like so many Brookline teachers, brings a rich lode of life experience to her classroom teaching. Her initial foray as a teacher--in a Catholic school in an industrial neighborhood of Pittsburgh--was the beginning of a lifelong passion. Pat's extensive travel to Spain, Portugal, France, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico; her commitment to continuing graduate course work on such topics as Women in Third World Countries and Adolescent Psychology; and her skills as a musician and visual artist--all inform her extraordinary teaching.

A love of travel, language, and culture prompted Pat to initiate and lead BHS's tremendously successful two-week study program in Cuernevaca, Mexico. "Pat should be our U.S. Ambassador to Mexico," says one colleague. "All the teachers and families we know in Cuernevaca look forward to her return."

Perhaps Pat's greatest gift is her ability to make students and parents feel "supported and heard." At Celebrating Teachers, she confessed, “as educators we are warned with words like ’professional’ and ’distance.’ But for me, teaching is an intimate experience. If I don’t know their stories and they don‘t know mine, how can I ask students to trust me or to take risks?”

Since 1997, Pat has guided BHS's Gay and Straight Student Alliance, and she also leads a support group for gay and lesbian parents. Her classroom is always full of chatting students at lunchtime. A student of Pat's says it best: Pat Herrington has "enormous heart" as a teacher and human being. "I do not know where I would be right now were it not for her."

Pat's masterful and hilarious Caverly acceptance speech started out with the admission that, as a young child, she had aspirations to sainthood: “My six-year-old self secretly longed to be St. Patricia, but I agonized over my low tolerance for pain and my addiction to ruffled dresses. And besides, I had no idea what I could possibly pull together for my three miracles….” Well, according to BHS students, parents, and colleagues, there’s a saint in their midst—and she’s teaching every day in Room 336!

The Adam Russell Gelfand Fellowship is awarded to Justin Brown, a 4th-grade teacher at Lawrence School. Mr. Brown’s grant will fund his attendance at a Japanese Language Immersion Class that will meet seven hours a day for four weeks this summer. His goal in taking this course is to increase his ability to communicate with the large community of Japanese students, parents, and teachers at Lawrence, which houses Brookline’s Japanese ELL program.

This annual award honors the life of Adam Gelfand, his respect for community, and his love of learning and the teachers who inspired him during his short life.

As part of the Brookline Education’s 25th Anniversary celebration, Brookline teachers were asked why they teach. Many of their honest, humorous, and poignant responses were presented at our Gala. Here are just a few:

I teach because I am captivated by kids and how they think. I am committed to helping them articulate that thinking process through probing questions and authentic work. I teach because I love to learn and am passionate about the craft of teaching and the process involved in both learning and teaching. Process, questions, and kids are key for me!

Esther Kattef
Grade 5, Devotion School

I teach because every once in a while, in the middle of teaching my heart out about dangling modifiers, or personification, or the six characteristics of tragedy, one small girl in class will look up at me with her big, curious eyes and ask, "Did you get that shirt at the Gap?"

Mary Burchenal
English, BHS

I teach because every day I learn something new, every day I am transformed by the transformation of my children.

Mary McConnell
Kindergarten, Driscoll School

I teach because each year I have about 80 amazing, spirited yet also insightful travel companions who journey with me through the worlds of Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Miller, Wiesel, Lowry, Myers, Shange, Cisneros and so many others.

Pat Rigley
Grades 7/8 English, Lincoln School

It is particularly sweet to be leaving the Brookline Education Foundation Board at a high water mark for the Foundation. We have had a phenomenal year and are poised to make an increasingly important contribution to excellence and innovation in teaching and learning in Brookline. I can say without hesitation: The state of the Foundation is sound.

We set an ambitious fundraising goal for this, our 25th anniversary year—$150,000 more than we raised in 2005. I am proud to report that we have reached our goal. And, by the end of our fiscal year, June 30, we’ll know by how much we exceed our goal. Our moving and beautiful gala event, the various auctions, the car raffle—it’s been an unbelievably busy year, but a truly great one!

So, four years after I first took the position of president, I stand ready to relinquish it. And I do so with great excitement and optimism. I hand off the position—but not my commitment to or engagement with the Foundation and its mission. That would be too hard to do.

At the Foundation’s recent Annual Meeting, the following board members were elected:

• Benna Kushlefsky is a Lincoln School parent of two young children. She is an attorney, who previously taught at Harvard Law School with a specialty in capital punishment cases.
• Julie Leitman is a Pierce School parent with children in the middle grades. She is a partner in a firm that arranges education abroad for American college students.
• Judy Levenson has children at Devotion School and Brookline High School. She is an assistant Attorney General with the AG’s Civil Rights Division.
• Kate Poverman has two children at Devotion School. She is an attorney and spent many years at the Securities and Exchange Commission practicing securities law enforcement.
• Yvette Yelardy has young children at Lawrence School. She has a background in retail management and has been active with the BEEP and Lawrence School PTOs.
  

Was that the Hallelujah Chorus playing in the background when the names of the 2006 Raffle winners were drawn at our April 6th Gala? It certainly was music to the ears of many to hear that the Brookline Music School won 1st prize – its choice of a 2006 Herb Chambers Mini Cooper or $12,000 – with a ticket purchased by a Brookline Education Foundation and Brookline Music School donor. The 2nd prize, an Apple iBook computer, went to Lida Lloyd. Three lucky 3rd prize winners, Sandy Dine, Nancy Pronovost, and Kathleen Barron, each received an Apple iPod Nano MP3 player.

Many thanks to everyone who purchased a ticket in this year's raffle!