GETTING TO KNOW – Marissa Ray, a seventh- and eighth-grade English As a New Language (ENL) teacher at Central Park Middle School, was recently surprised when the Schenectady City School District named her Teacher of the Year.
Ray has been working in the district for seven years, but helping students has been a lifelong passion.
“Marissa is an exceptional educator, and her goals, mission and actions are clearly aligned with those of the district,” Superintendent Anibal Soler, Jr. said in a news release. “She is committed to making connections to students and their families and ensuring that every one of her students has what is needed to be educationally successful. Students in Marissa’s class feel appreciated, supported, loved and able. We are grateful that she is a member of our team and is so deserving of this honor.”
Ray majored in sociology and double minored in Spanish and Africana studies for her undergraduate work at Union College and got her master’s degree in teaching English as a second language from the University at Albany.
Ray was nominated for Teacher of the Year by Kelly Kilian, a paraprofessional and colleague at Central Park. The nomination was also supported by several letters submitted from former and current students, parents and colleagues.
The Gazette caught up with Ray shortly after she was awarded the honor:
Q: What does being Teacher of the Year mean to you?
A: I think most people, when they hear the phrase ‘Teacher of the Year’ they assume [it means] best teacher, but to me, I think the students are honestly the best teachers. I always tell the kids that they learn the most when they’re helping each other and talking about the content and working through things together. So receiving this award was for them. It’s just as much of a victory and a win for them as it is for me.
Q: What are some of your favorite parts about being a teacher at Central Park?
A: I have wonderful, wonderful colleagues. I’ve worked in a couple of different schools in a couple of different districts. I’ve worked here the last seven years, but I’ve been working in schools for nine years, and we have such a solid staff here. We’re supportive of one another. We know how to let loose and have a good time, and we make the most of every moment that we’re in this building.
As an ENL teacher we have the same students typically year-to-year. So I get to know the students very well, I have their siblings, and their cousins and other family members, it’s nice to build those relationships over years.
Q: Why did you want to become a teacher?
A: It’s a long, funny story. When I was younger I always played school, I loved school supplies. And my parents had to take me to the parent-teacher store at a young age because I wanted to have the grade books and the markers and all that stuff.
My grandmother was a teacher. She was actually a professor at SUNY Cobleskill, and she’s a huge role model for me. Just hearing stories about her, and the influence and impact that she had on her students when I was young. Being in Cobleskill, it’s a very small town, so everybody knows everybody, but my grandmother was almost like the mayor of Cobleskill. To this day, she’s 88 years old and we go out and everyone knows her. Seeing that as a kid was like ‘Oh my gosh, I want to be like that someday.’
Q: What do you think led you to specialize as an ENL teacher?
A: Looking back on it now, it makes complete sense that I’m an ESL ENL teacher. When I was in fifth grade there was a girl who came to my class from South Korea, her dad had gotten a job here at GE and they were only going to be here temporarily. Her family lived in the apartment complex behind my parents’ house. She spoke zero English and my teacher had me buddy up with her, show her where the bathroom is, show her how to get through the lunch line. Her and I became such good friends, and there was that language barrier, we couldn’t communicate, but she would come over almost every day after school. We would ride bikes, I was helping her with her homework and in turn, she was teaching me some Korean, and I was 10 years old at the time.
Q: When you are not teaching, what do you like to do for fun?
A: I played basketball pretty much my whole life. I stopped playing basketball in college because I had torn both my ACLs. So I like to play recreational basketball for fun here and there.
I’m very close with my family. I like to spend time with my family as often as possible. My parents have been my number one cheerleaders throughout my whole athletic career, being a student myself and now being a teacher. My parents come into my classroom often to volunteer and read with the kids, do crafts, they bring snacks and they decorated my classroom.
Q: Is there anything else you want readers to know about you or the ENL program?
A: I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, our ENL students in this district are beyond hardworking. They are so proud of where they come from. They bring such positivity to our school community and I’m not just speaking for Central Park, I’m speaking for all of the schools across the district. We all share the same sentiment in our department. Our students and their families are so wonderful to work with. I’m just very proud of them on a daily basis, they come to this country with very little knowledge of the language and culture, and . . . they’re able to carve out a little space for themselves here in our school, our ENL classroom is a little safe haven.