A Portrait of a Master Teacher: Lorena Stankevich

Lorena Stankevich in her combined 1-2nd grade classroom at Orcas Elementary School

By Margie Doyle

She always, “always!” wanted to be a teacher, says Orcas Elementary teacher Lorena Stankevich, and now she has achieved a pinnacle of teacher achievement: the National Board Certification for  Teachers.

She decided to take this challenge in part to continue her professional development in a program that would allow her to easily transfer her teaching license to another state. That said, her immediate plans are to stay put on Orcas, with her high school daughter Daria, and her husband Dimitri, who is Director at YMCA Camp Orkila.

More importantly,  from a professional and personal standpoint, Lorena felt it was worth the time and energy for “the positive impact it has had on my teaching. “I’m always thinking, ‘How did that class [session or project] go?’ ‘How could it be made better?’ And then doing better the next time.”

Stankevich’s national certification process focused on Early Literacy. This year, Stankevich shares the 1st and 2nd grade classes with Anne Ford McGrath. She teaches phonics, sight words and word families and then reads great stories to the children, who then talk about the stories. Then the children read at their level and move forward. “The children aren’t ‘tested’ but I’m always assessing their reading,” Lorena says.

Growing up, she didn’t have a rich collection of books, but in college she came across the vast world of children’s literature. Now, about half the books in her classroom are from her family’s personal collection. She encourages her students to get their own books through the points she earns in the Scholastic Book Club. This two-week holiday break, each child will have their own new book from Lorena’s classroom.

She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education and started teaching 21 years ago; she obtained a Masters in Education in 1993. Her principal in Oregon at the David Douglas School District where she worked for almost 10 years greatly impacted her teaching by coaching, mentoring, encouraging teamwork and collaboration among her teachers, and also by assessing and documenting the students’ progress towards standards.

The principal worked through her teachers’ personalities,pride,  territorialism, ego and defensiveness to achieve collaboration, cooperation and teaching improvement through calm persistence, respect and listening. The staff engaged in book clubs and dialog, and “My principal always valued each personal contribution. Everyone has something to bring to the table, we all can learn from each other.

“It sparked in me the power behind collaborative reflection,” says Lorena, “though it’s not necessarily easier, because talking to people takes a lot of time!”

It is a teaching mode she shares with Anne Ford McGrath. “We have similar teaching styles and learn a lot from each other, comparing our ‘takes’ on a situation. Two heads are better than one, and our kids get the benefit of a much richer program.

“I’ve always loved working with kids, sharing their excitement, and wanted to make a difference in people’s lives: this is my way of doing it,” Lorena says.

Her passion for teaching kids starts with “their openness and yes, their innocence. They’re curious, eager to learn, building relationships. I don’t know all the details of their lives and I don’t put myself out as a ‘friend,’ but I work to make the children feel safe, valued, confident, capable of doing whatever they attempt, and that they have a lot to offer.

“In an elementary classroom, you’re with kids all day. There’s obviously a lot of academics and also many, many teachable moments in how to get along with 21 other people, to share, to take your turn, to listen and to be heard.

Lorena says that parenthood “really changed who I was as a teacher.” And indeed, teaching has changed so much as the role of the family has changed, she adds. Teachers spend so much time and energy dealing with social needs – like breakfast and socks. “What we’re doing now is different from 15 years ago. The issue of respect is huge, in the way kids talk to adults and in our acceptance of behaviors that were not socially allowed. It impacts what we’re doing.

“Our society has to realize that it’s different now and see the bigger picture. And it’s not helpful to be judgmental. So many kids’ parents are busy with the stresses of the economy, and safety and stability.”

The national accreditation allows her to teach anywhere in the United States; it supercedes state credentials. But more than a paper certificate, Lorena appreciates the year-long process of self-examination and critique, reflection and planning involved. The national certification for teaching process is not a course per se, says Lorena, but “looking at yourself as a teacher, researching the best practices of teaching, and reflecting upon your teaching to improve and move forward.” She chose “Early Childhood Literacy” as a focal point and worked monthly in person with a facilitator to examine teaching.

It sounds dry, but as Lorena explains it, the process was dynamic, cooperative and enlightening. “It’s about continually improving and moving forward,” she says.

The process to pass the National Teacher Board Certification started in the fall of 2012:

• Compiling four portfolios: 1) constructing meaning through writing 2) reading strategies and techniques 3) integrating speaking, listening, viewing ((technology)) 4) review of teacher’s activities through the year with teachers, parents and community;
• Taking tests in six different areas in addition to the portfolios, among them English Language Learning, Early Readers, and Oral Language acquisition;
• And the process came at a hefty financial cost of over $2,000.

Lorena and another Orcas teacher had the support of the school district in terms of five days of substitute teaching so that Lorena could pursue her coursework; technical assistance, especially in making two videos required in the portfolios; and space for the facilitator who came from Friday Harbor monthly.

From her perspective of two decades of teaching in three different states, parenthood and now attaining national certification Lorena Stankevich says, “The biggest dilemma is how to fund education. Public education has been defined as the “paramount duty” of Washington state’s constitution, but before that, “as a community, we have to determine what do we want.”

That will call for assessment, dialog, collaboration, and reflection in order to move forward. Lorena Stankevich, nationally certified teacher, has much to contribute to the future of public education.