Meet Our Mentors
Andrew Sheber
Mentor Teacher
Why did Andrew Sheber decide to become an English teacher? “When I was a teenager, books were my security blanket, my getaway car, my mentors, and my friends. I became a teacher so I could share the powers of literature.”
Andrew Sheber is in his eighth year of teaching English at Kingston High School in Kingston, New York. Currently he teaches 10th-grade Regents and honors English as well as two elective courses for 11th and 12th graders. He has also taught global studies and 9th-grade English. He has a B.A. in liberal arts, with a major in English, from SUNY Oneonta, and a master’s degree in humanistic education from SUNY New Paltz. Andrew has been a MAT Program mentor teacher since the program’s inception.
Why did he become a teacher? “So I could share the powers of literature. When I was an adolescent, reading rescued me from boring times, dreadful experiences, and awkward moments. Books were my security blanket, my getaway car, my mentors, and my friends. A few caring teachers guided me away from some potentially destructive decisions, and literature provided me with a map.”
Why does he continue to teach? “I relish the experience of sparking and stoking the fire of inquiry and learning. There’s nothing better than helping a student make a new connection.”
What kinds of research questions has he brought to his participation in the MAT Program? “I’m interested in learning how to get past students’ reticence to learning. What can we do to counter economic disadvantages, peer pressure, and societal prejudices that compete for our students’ souls? How do we overcome years of institutionalized practices that tend to marginalize our students and retard their development?”
What does he value in his work as a MAT Program mentor? “The chance to discuss methods and approaches with eager apprentices who’ve studied recent research. I also like interacting and sharing ideas with college professors in the workshop classes we’ve had at Bard. And I’m especially proud and satisfied when ‘my’ apprentices find jobs in the field—they make the profession that much richer.”
Celia Hetterich
Mentor Teacher
“As a MAT Program mentor teacher, I’ve learned to question the value and purpose of everything I do in the classroom. Not just ‘does it work?’ but ‘why does it work'?"
Celia Hetterich, a mentor teacher in the MAT Program at Bard since its inception, has taught 8th-grade English at Chatham Middle School in Chatham, New York, for four years. During her 13 years of teaching she has also taught 7th-grade English and social studies. She has a master’s degree in English education from SUNY Albany and a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Brockport.
What are Celia’s current interests in teaching? “Finding the best way to implement a reader response journal, and looking for more ways to help my students use effective peer evaluation methods to inspire and improve their writing. I’m also looking at better approaches to using poetry in the middle school classroom.”
After 13 years of teaching middle and high school, what inspires her? “The fact that I’m still learning. There’s still so much more I want to be able to do in the classroom. The students inspire me. I’m learning from them every day. This job can be incredibly frustrating, but it’s also incredibly satisfying. It’s sappy, but I love the kids.”
What has she learned as a MAT Program mentor teacher? “I’ve learned to question the value and purpose of everything I do in the classroom. Not just ‘does it work?’ but 'why does it work’?”
Clarissa Coffey
Mentor Teacher
What inspires Clarissa Coffey, a Bard MAT Program mentor teacher in Manhattan? “I really love working with adolescents. They change their way of thinking very quickly. Observing these changes is what makes teaching rewarding for me.”
Working as a mentor to apprentice teachers from Bard’s MAT Program has taught Clarissa Coffey to look at what she does through fresh eyes. “Helping someone who’s brand new to the profession has given me the opportunity to review why I do what I do as a teacher,” says Coffey, who has taught math, chemistry, history, and music at the middle school, high school, and college levels in New York City for 20 years. Coffey says that one of her primary objectives, as a mentor, is to encourage her apprentice teachers to think about different approaches to classroom-management issues, such as how to resolve a problem calmly and quickly without bruising students’ feelings. “What techniques are there if plan A doesn’t work—at what point do you move on to plan B? After 20 years, these are things I do automatically. Working with apprentices has helped to focus on finding ‘best practices’ to pass along.”
John Crews
Mentor Teacher
“The level of preparation that Bard’s MAT students receive, both in content and pedagogy, is way beyond that of any other program I’ve known. My Bard student teachers come into the classroom with strong content knowledge and innovative methods.”
After earning a degree in politics from Princeton, John “Coach” Crews went back home to Kingston, New York, to coach football at Kingston High School, his alma mater. He earned his teaching certification a few years later, continuing on to earn a master’s degree in humanistic and multicultural education. He has been a social studies teacher since 1999, and a mentor teacher for Bard’s MAT Program since 2006. For Crews, coaching and teaching are heavily intertwined. “Once I got my teaching certification, I know I became a better coach. And I think being a coach has made me a better teacher. I can’t imagine doing anything else—I love what I do. Even a bad day in the classroom beats a good day sitting behind a desk in an office.” For an experienced teacher with more than one post-graduate degree, how does Bard’s MAT Program measure up? “The level of preparation that Bard’s MAT students receive, both in content and pedagogy, is way beyond that of any other program I’ve known. My Bard student teachers come into the classroom with strong content knowledge and innovative methods.”
Kathleen Hack
Mentor Teacher
“I’m in my 25th year of teaching middle school. As retirement looms in my relatively near future, working with apprentices assures me that my accumulated knowledge will be passed on to a new generation of outstanding teachers.”
Social studies teacher Kathleen Hack enjoys her job and her audience: middle school students. “I’m in my 25th year of teaching middle school, and I’ve never had a desire to leave this age group,” she says. “Yes, being a middle school teacher can be heartbreaking, but it’s also heartwarming, never boring, and always fulfilling. More important, because it keeps me connected to our most important resource—our young people—it keeps me young.”
Initially hesitant to take on an apprentice, when Hack learned about the support she would receive from the Bard faculty, she signed on. “What sets Bard’s MAT Program apart from others is that the professors stay very connected to their students and to us, the mentor teachers. It’s not just the occasional 40-minute observation. Bard is truly dedicated to the task of preparing MAT students for the incredibly difficult task of teaching. Meeting with MAT faculty and with other mentor teachers gives me the sense that I am part of the Bard community.”
Last year she collaborated with her apprentice teacher on a research project that investigated the value of homework assignments. Not only did the apprentice teacher learn how to evaluate the procedures used in the classroom, but, Hack says, “The project also helped me rethink what I’ve been doing over the past several years. And as retirement looms in my relatively near future, working with apprentice teachers makes me feel assured that the knowledge and skills I’ve accumulated over the years will be passed on to a new generation of outstanding teachers.”
Michele Debye-Saxinger
Mentor Teacher
“Teaching is very rewarding—the days fly by.”
Michele Debye-Saxinger chose to become an English teacher because she loves to learn. “I believe the answers to virtually all questions about life are in books,” she says. “As a teacher I share the experience of figuring out what authors are really talking about. Reader-response theory is always on my mind.” She enjoys observing her students as they become increasingly engaged with their reading. After six years of teaching English, she says she couldn’t be happier about her career choice. “Teaching is a very rewarding field. The days fly by.” This is her second year as a mentor teacher in Bard’s MAT Program, which she values “as an opportunity to explore in great depth how students read—and what they do when they lose interest.”
Nic Vitale
Mentor Teacher
“Why did I become a teacher? Because I think teaching can be done better. I want to make school a more interesting, inspiring, and liberating place.”
Nic Vitale teaches integrated math and science to 9th graders at Banana Kelly High School in the Bronx, New York. During his seven years at the school he has taught 11th- and 12th-grade physics, 9th-grade environmental science, and elective classes for 9th through 12th graders. He has a B.S. in physics, with a minor in philosophy, from SUNY Albany, and an M.A. in middle and high school science education from CUNY’s Lehman College. This is Nic’s second year as a mentor teacher for MAT Program students.
Why did Nic become a teacher? “Because I think teaching can be done better. As a child I found school restrictive and boring. I had many inspiring learning experiences outside of school. I’m fascinated with how people make sense of the world. I want to make school a more interesting, inspiring, and liberating place.”
How did he come to teach the integrated math and science class? “When I was teaching physics to 11th and 12th graders I found that many of my students weren’t prepared to learn the subject. Discussing this and similar experiences with my colleagues led to the idea of creating an integrated foundations class for 9th graders.”
What does he value in his work as a MAT Program mentor teacher? “As a mentor teacher I’m not just giving answers or tips; rather, it’s a collaboration that gives me an opportunity to explore the processes of teaching and learning.”
Sean O'Brien
Mentor Teacher
“The MAT Program has provided a welcome infusion of new thinking and ideas that help me keep current in my profession.”
Sean O’Brien, an English teacher at Kingston High School in Kingston, New York, has been a Bard MAT Program mentor teacher since the program’s inception. Following are the responses he gave when asked to reflect on his experiences as a “charter” mentor.
“I’m always impressed with what apprentice teachers bring to my classroom. Not only do they understand how kids learn to read and write, but they approach the classroom as a laboratory. Every good teacher is, on some level, always doing research into what works and what doesn’t. No lesson fits every situation, or every kid, every time. The MAT students I’ve known get that. A MAT graduate is not going to be a teacher who creates a plan book and then teaches that for the next 30 years (which, by the way, was a colleague’s advice to me my second year of teaching).
“As a teacher in a public high school that still adheres to the eight-period school day, I rarely have the time to reflect on my own teaching practice, much less to discuss that practice with my colleagues. Because I’m responsible for providing opportunities for my apprentices, I’m compelled to reflect on why I do what I do. Having an apprentice in my classroom gives me the opportunity to discuss my practice with another learned adult.
“MAT apprentices come into my classroom with a wealth of knowledge and ideas about teaching. For example, I’ve completely changed the way I teach Shakespeare, in part because of the ideas one apprentice brought into my classroom. And last year I took notes while my apprentice led my students—our students, actually—through a unit in writing poetry that had me rethinking everything I know about teaching poetry. I can’t wait to put some of his ideas to work this year. The MAT Program has provided a welcome infusion of new thinking and ideas that help me keep current in my profession.”
Tom Lascher
Mentor Teacher
“My apprentice teacher’s questions and reflections stimulated a lively reexamination of situations that I had begun to take for granted.”
Tom Lascher has taught social studies and English at high schools in California and New York. He now teaches 9th-grade humanities at New Day Academy in the Bronx, New York, where he is a mentor teacher for Bard’s MAT Program. In addition to his teaching experience, Lascher has an extensive background in curriculum and professional development. He says he has been impressed with the Bard MAT Program’s commitment to urban education as well as the program’s high academic standards and emphasis on content mastery. “Talking with a Bard student teacher is an engrossing experience because they bring both real factual knowledge and unanswerable questions to the table,” Lascher says. “My apprentice teacher has a strong point of view, a large commitment to social justice, and a great curiosity about teenagers. His questions and reflections stimulated a lively reexamination of situations that I had begun to take for granted. He articulated the conflict between serving history and serving kids very effectively. I look forward to more conversations with him about how to set priorities as a teaching professional.”
