One of this year’s recipients of the Pioneer Valley Excellence in Teaching Awards, Courtney Imbriglio is a Title I reading teacher for Grades 5 & 6 at Butterfield School in Orange, MA. We think you’ll hear her passion for and dedication to teaching and learning in her responses to the following questions we recently asked her.
What support did you receive or wish you had received early in your teaching career? When I first began in Orange, I taught in an inclusion classroom with a special education teacher and a paraprofessional with 13 students. I learned a lot from the team of adults I worked with about how to differentiate instruction and meet the needs of all learners.
What keeps you enthusiastic about teaching, and where do you find your inspiration? I really enjoy working with my students. I love the innocence of childhood and I enjoy listening to students reason their way through problems as they gain knowledge and understanding. I also find inspiration through professional development. Keeping current keeps me going! I love learning and passing along knowledge to staff members and students!
What is a favorite classroom resource (e.g., website, lesson, activity)? I use varied resources. This year I have used Assistments and Scootpad, which are great web-based resources. In addition, I have found Readworks.org to be quite a valuable tool.
If you could change just one thing in education today, what would it be? I think standardized testing and measuring teacher impact with students’ scores is putting too much pressure on educators. I’ve seen too many great teachers want to leave the field because of these demands. Thought I do think there needs to be measures of teacher quality, I’m not sure this is the answer!
We’d also appreciate hearing how you, our readers, might respond to any of these questions.