Teacher Stories: Phyllis Brandl, Riviera Elementary School, Trenton, NJ
I knew early on that I didn’t want to spend my life doing work that didn’t have any meaning behind it. At a young age, I started volunteering with kids and working at a before-and-after-school program. When I was in high school, my science teacher pulled me aside and he said, “You really have a way when you’re up in front of the classroom. You should be a teacher.” It just kind of resonated with me, like, okay, that’s what I’m going to do.
I’ve been in Trenton for about thirteen years, and I taught in Asbury Park for three years. I wanted to work somewhere where it was really needed. So, when I taught in Asbury, I’ve always had like a heart for kind of the underdog, and I loved it. I’ve worked in all sorts of different positions in special education. I was originally in preschool, then I did several years in inclusion, then early childhood inclusion. And I finally felt like, you know what, I think I want my own classroom again, and so I switched over to this self-contained autism class this year.
What I want my children to get from me in the classroom is to feel love. I want my kids to know, reading, and understanding that learning is the key to them being able to pursue what they want in their lives, and that they can do that. Most of the kids I’m with now may or may not know their alphabet yet, and some are nonverbal, and my big goal for them is to be able to read. That’s my goal for them: to be able to write their names, know their names, read a little bit, know the letters, and know the numbers.
One year, I had this student, and she was fantastic. And she went home and she cut out all the little letters, and she made me a sign that said, ‘phonics is power.’ And it was so cool. It’s something I treasure to this day.
