Teacher Stories: Allyson Blanford, 6th Grade Teacher at William Annin Middle School, Basking Ridge, NJ
Character development is big right now in a lot of districts in New Jersey, focusing on building resilience and that kind of thing. So, we infuse that into our curriculum as much as we can. I’m an English teacher, so it’s easier for me because we read stories with all kinds of characters, the good and the bad and we can work with that. Right now, we’re doing Greek mythology, and the kids love it because there are some crazy stories, but the lessons that come from them, like the themes, we can take those and apply them to life now. We’ll talk about characters, what you do, what you don’t do, how you treat people. And so, it’s just working a lot of that into our curriculum.
I think it’s harder for kids now than ever, especially in middle school. I’m amazed at how much being a kid has changed from when I started 28 years ago. Back then it was very different. I say the kids are different because they were living in a different time. Not that the kids themselves are different, but they had less to deal with, as far as technology and all that. And I think that now, the battles that the kids are facing are very different. Bullying was always a thing, but it was easier to get a grasp on when it was just in person, and it was in school. But now the bullying goes beyond the classroom, and it makes it that much more difficult.
One story that comes to mind was a student who had recently lost their dad, and they were really feeling pretty down. I cannot remember if it was around Father’s Day, or if we were doing something on having a male role model in your life, and the other kids were pointing out to him how he didn’t have that person in his life, and he was very upset.
I was a newer teacher at the time, but I pulled him over, and I kept him when they went out for a bit. We chatted and I shared with him that I had lost my dad as well when I was a teenager, and I shared some of what I went through, and we connected over that. I think that’s what kids like when they see the more human side of a teacher, that it’s not just someone there to grade and give assignments and things like that. Later his mom sent me the nicest email, and then I ended up going to his Bar Mitzvah and being one of the people who came up that he spoke about, and it ended up being a lifelong relationship. I still keep in touch with him, and that was probably 20 years ago.
Interview by Gregory Andrus
Portraits of the Jersey Shore
