When you're a mother longer than you're a teacher, you connect with the students in a different way. Well that's how everyone felt with Mrs. Selekman. She took over 6th grade English after a couple months and slowly helped me up from failing to passing.
Sixth grade was a change. All the schools changed from four, five, six to six, seven, eight so we had to move schools. Gladly I was in the gifted program so all my friends moved schools with me. About three months into school, my teacher left for medical reasons and couldn’t return. Mrs. Selekman came to teach us around December 2009. She picked up right where Mrs. Wiener left off.
She was super caring; she listened to anyone and everyone. She connected with everyone, I don’t think there was a single person who didn’t like her. She made sure everyone knew what was going on and what to do. She really adopted the saying “No one gets left behind”. She made sure everyone knew what was going on and what to do. She engaged in all conversations. She never judged so even if you felt embarrassed about anything, school related or personal you could always talk to her. I feel like her mom instincts pushed through her teaching so she had to make sure everyone was taken care of while teaching.
What really stuck with me was how she taught. She had us do self-selected projects, a 3 to 5 page research paper and a power point and it could be on anything we wanted. We also did Greek roots in seventh grade and Latin roots in eighth grade. Those have helped me with English tests, history tests, the smarter balance test and DCASS.
She had great activities too. When we read twelfth night, she took us to a play so we could really understand it. She also had debates, a day everyone looked forward to. You know it was a good class when people were upset to leave.
Mrs. Selekman left a lasting impression on me. She made English a good class that I looked forward to everyday and every year. Most things she taught me I use even now. I hope she knows she is greatly appreciated. Thank you Mrs. Selekman.