Colleagues,
We are most pleased to share this terrific story from Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech, as graduates return to teach at their vocational technical high school.
David
Once a student, now a teacher. Who’s new, and who is back at Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech
Kathryn Gallerani The Standard-Times
On Tuesday, Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School Principal Warley Williams welcomed about 20 new teachers to the school in his fourth school year, including some who rose through the ranks from teacher’s assistant to teacher positions following teacher retirements.
“It’s really exciting to bring in some new staff,” he said. “We have one of our youngsters who was a student here who graduated in 2017 who is a teacher so that’s really exciting,” he said. "We have a few alumni in the group, so that’s always great.”
On this first day of school, new stationary engineering teacher Orgelio “Jay” Soares was reorganizing the portfolio that he had from when he graduated so he could show his students how to set up their portfolio and had one of his students look at it.
“One of my goals essays from my senior year said I wanted to do everything to qualify to become a Greater New Bedford Vocational High School teacher, so ever since I graduated, I wanted to come back and teach,” he said.
He is now fulfilling that goal and is teaching freshmen and sophomores. “I just felt like I would be more fulfilled with a purpose, so I came back here,” Soares said. “There’s still a big learning curve that I have to go through, but so far it’s been worth it.”
Soares said Williams sent him the right people to learn from, how to get organized and how to handle a classroom, specifically mentioning Academy D Administrator Beverly Rebelo for her support.
Soares has shared his goals for the year with the students and after hearing from them is thinking about ways to combine more field trips with monthly community service to help when applying for college scholarships and ultimately make them more employable.
Back to school to teach IT
New information technology teacher Marcus Houtman was born and raised in New Bedford and played professional basketball for years in Europe, Africa and in other countries with the Cape Verdean National Team.
“One of the main things I tell these kids is I wouldn’t have made $1 without the discipline that I learned from being in school,” he said. “I am a scholar first. It taught me focus, it taught me discipline, and it taught me time management, and that’s one of the main keys in life.”
Teaching has always been one of Houtman’s passions. He was a middle school teacher about 10 years ago before switching over to the business side, working on accounts, and was excited when this new opportunity to be hired as an IT teacher at the vocational school came up. “There’s nothing more rewarding than to spend your time with young kids that are willing to learn, and it’s an exciting industry,” he said. “I’m getting them ready for industry, and the skills I’m going to pass on, I was using in my last job.”
He said technology is one of the top jobs out there, and he tells the juniors and seniors he teaches that by focusing on programming instead of social media, the work they do in school will financially set them up for the future.
He said it’s special to be able to teach them., and because there is a process to graphic design work, he’s focused on getting them into a business mentality, an organized mentality and more importantly a focus on time management. “I love it here,” he said. “It’s a challenge. It’s what you want.”
Breaking bread with the new pastry chef
Some of the new teachers rose through the ranks from teacher’s assistant to teacher positions following teacher retirements. Willliams said it’s nice to see how excited they are about teaching.
Crystal Vitorino started off last year as a teacher’s assistant in the culinary department. Due to a retirement, and her hard work last year, she was hired as the new baking and pastry chef. It’s her specialty, and her mother was her inspiration.
She attended Johnson & Wales University in Providence after leaving New Jersey and has worked in various restaurants in the Providence area before joining the teaching staff in New Bedford. Since Tuesday was the first day, she focused on safety protocol and procedures.
“By the end of this first cycle with our first students we’re going to go right into quick breads, so that will be things such as muffins, and scones to prepare them for our cafe, which is going to be opening soon,” she said.
She said she had a great opportunity to work with the students last year when she covered the different kitchens, so she knew them already and her expectations, and they knew she was a fresh face who wants to bring more fun to the kitchen.
New teachers learn lessons, too!
Williams said the new teachers start off getting acclimated to the school, including focusing on lesson plan development, evaluation structure, how to work through evaluations and understand them, classroom management and behavior modification.
“They learn about the school soup to nuts,” he said. “We had a tour with the staff, we talked a lot about technology and AI and how it can enhance their lesson plans and their lessons in class, among a variety of other things, and that was across three days to make sure they have everything they need to be feel supported.”
For two years more experienced teachers will help guide them along the way.
David J. Ferreira
MAVA Communications Coordinator
DavidFerreira