My experience at St.Anthony’s gave me the incentive to embark on a new and rewarding journey, teaching. I knew I wanted to work with kids not unlike myself at that age. My experience at Washington Irving in Manhattan and Truman in the Bronx gave me the empathy and experience to teach. It wasn’t easy but it was rewarding all the time and sad some of the time.
I would like to thank the Truman HS principal Mr. Mark Orfinger for his guidance and support. When he hired me he said, ” I will make a deal with you, you become a presence in the halls and I will show you how to teach Shakespeare.” Despite an ongoing gang turf war and 3,000 students we both succeeded.
For the last 18 years I have taught at Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, NJ.
It also was a challenging school because of the high turnover of administrative staff. I had fourteen principals during that time. It was a great school for me because of the students, families, dedicated teachers and my involvement with the teachers union. I have just retired after twenty five years of teaching and am proud of my accomplishments and all the fine work of public school teachers throughout this country.