Montville’s 2008-09 Teacher of the Year, Brenda Severino, is serious about kids having fun at school. The 30-year veteran in education, currently a fourth grade teacher at Oakdale School, invests a lot of creativity and extra hours in coming up with entertaining ways for her students to show what they are learning.
Severino has taught in Montville elementary and middle schools since September 1979. From 1984 to 1987 she worked with special education students at the pre-school level at Oakdale and in seventh and eighth grade at Dr. Charles E. Murphy Junior High. In 1988 she started teaching sixth grade classes, first at Oakdale School, then at Leonard J. Tyl Middle School when it opened in 1992. She returned to Oakdale School in 2001.
A passionate organizer of programs during the school year, she schedules several day-time learning centers for younger students and at least one evening session or performance so they can invite their parents and families.
“I really believe in empowering students so they can express their strength and their competence through their voices,” she said. “I like to get other teachers involved and do evening programs so the children can show off their talents, academically and others. I think that’s very important.”
Last year, her fourth graders put on a “coffee house” poetry reading evening. One year her sixth grade history students researched the Middle Ages and put on a Medieval program for 300 adults, from written reports, foods, costumes and a theater production.
Another year, her students studied Christmas and winter holiday seasons around the world. Teachers donned costumes. Severino and her husband, Michael, a civil engineer at Electric Boat, dressed up as Mrs. and Mr. Santa Clause and danced for everyone.
“My philosophy is to give students every opportunity to demonstrate their academic achievement,” she said. “This is really the philosophy of education today. Teachers are doing everything they can to make sure that a child feels successful.”
Why She Is a Teacher
Severino went into education because she enjoyed school as a child in Massachusetts, even though she moved to seven different schools between first and ninth grade.
“I could always count on school to be a comfortable and safe place for me to be, and I wanted to give that back to a profession that had given so much to me,” she said. “It was structure, teachers were always warm and kind to me.”
Although “differentiated instruction” is the trend and phrase in education these days, Severino said the teachers of her childhood took the time to find out what she already knew, coming from a different school system, so they could plan her instruction around her strengths and what she had already learned.
“Education will give you the freedom to have choices, so children will have choices when they grow up; freedom to make their own decisions,” she said.
After receiving her BS in Special Education and Elementary Education from State College at Bridgewater, Mass, Severino started her teaching career at St. Aloysius School in Greenville, R.I., working with children in an orphanage and in a residential treatment facility where children had been removed from their homes because of abuse.
She also earned her MS in Human Relations from Easter Connecticut State University in 1989 and recently completed the Administrative Preparation Program at Sacred Heart University.
Severino has seen many changes in education over the years.
“The most significant one is that teachers do not work in isolation any more. Teachers now have common planning time and meet together to share ideas, materials and strategies to meet an entire grade level's needs,” she said, adding that Mark Johnson, Oakdale School Principal, attends these meetings twice a month.
There is more testing these days, but Severino said the common tests across grade levels gets assistance to students who may be struggling in one or more areas and not just special education students. Small groups of students are receiving help from another teacher on the team, a specialist or a paraprofessional.
“Teachers are not only working to help their own students, but they are working together to find innovative and out of the box solutions to better educate all the children at a grade level,” she said.
The Montville Board of Education honored Severino at its Tuesday, September 16 meeting. In accepting her honor, Severino called her husband, Michael, “my cheerleader and my rock.”
“He believes that the job I have is more important than any other job. He’s behind me 100 percent,” she said. “When you’re teaching and you really are giving 150 percent to your job, you’re here late, you’re putting in long hours, you’re working on the weekends. Somebody’s got to pitch in at home, and Michael does.”
The Severinos, who live in Uncasville, have three children, all who have or are attending Montville public schools. Christopher, 26, graduated first in his class from Montville High and Providence College, and is now in business in California. Ryan, 24, is attending Eastern Connecticut State College and is working. Lexi, 13, attends Montville Middle School.
As a parent and Montville resident, Severino said she has been very pleased with the education her children received from Montville’s school system. Her sons told her they were better prepared for college level writing, thanks to their Montville history and English teachers.
Severino has this advice for parents: take the time to read with your children.
“Even an older child likes to sit at night and be read to,” she said. “If they don’t want you to read to them, set aside some time where each of you read your own things beside each other, books, magazines or newspapers. Discuss what you’re reading.”
Don’t give up the picture books too early, either, even for older kids.
“Picture books are wonderful, for adults and kids. I love pictures books. They can have wonderful vocabulary,” she said, adding that her sons, as young teenagers, hung out in the doorway to listen in when she read picture books with their younger sister.
“Why is Wii so popular, and what are the kids looking for in the best computer game? They’re looking for the best graphics,” she said. “I think sometimes we take away the picture books too early.”
Severino regularly attends workshops by the Connecticut Reading Association.
“CRA is all about furthering teachers’ education. When you go to college, you’re not learning everything you need to know in the classroom. CRA’s conferences and workshops really expand their learning and keep them abreast of all the new information,” she said.
She commends the Montville Board of Education for allocating money for the district’s teachers to attend CRA workshops. She also signs up for and pays her own way to additional workshops on weekends; last Saturday she took in one on making foldable booklets.
“It’s a way to engage children in learning by making hands-on tools. They can fold paper in different ways to make booklets, one way for book reports, another way to show that they know their multiplication tables,” she said.
“We have to learn all kinds of things to keep children engaged. That’s a biggie today – when you’re standing in front of the classroom, and kids are used to computer games and Wii programs, you have to be exciting and find different ways to engage them.”
Severino found out at the end of last year’s school year that she was being named teacher of the year. Over the summer she completed the application to be considered for state Teacher of the Year awards, which will be announced soon. In November, she will attend a celebration for all Connecticut school Teachers of the Year.
Being named Montville’s Teacher of the Year involves some homework, too. Severino was the keynote speaker at this year’s teachers’ workshops for all teachers in the district.
“The best teachers work every day to help each student find his own unique music, that which sets him apart from others, that which ultimately makes him successful,” she told Montville teachers in August. “They do not let their students sit on the sidelines or take a back seat. The best teachers motivate and build trust so that each child will emerge from the shadows and effect his own education.”
Words of wisdom from a committed educator.