Lake Washington School District Honors Ginny Romano, Teacher at Samantha Smith Elementary

Ginny Romano, teacher, Smith Elementary

Kudos to Ginny Romano, Lake Washington School District’s “Staff Star” for June 2011.

Ginny Romano, a fourth grade teacher at , is passionate about learning. You can hear it in her voice as she discusses books with her students. You can see it in the way she encourages her students to do their best, no matter what subject they are learning.

Ginny began her teaching career in upstate New York. She taught first and second grade there. Then she moved to New Hampshire where she taught first through third and fifth grade for nine years before moving to this area.

Ginny has been a teacher in Lake Washington School District for the past 19 years, all of them at Smith. When asked why she has stayed at Smith for so long, Ginny says, “My own children attended Smith for a span of nine years. During that time I enjoyed being a parent and a teacher in the same community. After nearly 20 years, many students and families have become friends.”

Ginny grew up in the Adirondacks and attended a K-12 school with the same 23 classmates. This unique learning environment and the relationships that existed affected the teacher she became. While Smith is much larger than Schroon Lake Central School, she feels there are many similarities in the goals and expectations she sets for her students. “I treat my students as I was treated in that small town environment. Once kids are my students, they are always mine and they know I care about them even after they walk out my door in June,” said Ginny.

Ginny’s passion lies in sharing authors and books with her students in a way that develops lifelong literacy skills. Her philosophy is “so many books, so little time.” She trains students to read like a writer, aiming to improve comprehension and appreciation of author’s style. Ultimately the hope is for students to transfer author’s crafts to their own writing.

She brought the first Accelerated Reader (AR) and Accelerated Math (AM) programs to Lake Washington School District, beginning with Samantha Smith in the early 1990s. Partnering with PTSA, she gathered the necessary funds to support the costs of both programs. AR can be used to document students’ independent reading efforts. AM provides students with an opportunity for independent math practice and assessment.

Last year, thanks again to the support of the PTSA, Smith was able to upgrade to the online versions of both AM and AR. This version allows students at Smith to access all the reading tests (over 30,000 tests), instead of the 1,500 purchased by Smith. Math libraries were in place for students in grades 2-7 with the original AM program: now students have access to all math libraries ranging from first grade through calculus.

During the transition to the online program, Ginny spent her free time working with the district’s technology team to transfer all of the old data into the new system. She will continue to be the administrator for these programs, working to prepare the system for use each September and training staff members in best practices for these programs.

“My favorite part of being a teacher is the sense of accomplishment that comes from seeing kids make huge strides during their time in my class. The most rewarding thing for me is when students come back to tell me how they changed as a learner while in my class, or about a book I should put in my ‘stack’ , or to say, ‘I remember when…’ or when they just come back to say hello and to get one more chocolate kiss from my basket. I am honored to have been a small part of their lives.” said Ginny.

-- This information is from the . It is being reposted with permission.