*Second Grade ELA Teacher*
By: BHS Staff Profiles
November 21, 2022
Chosen for this week’s staff spotlight is Mrs. Susan Grodek. She has been a teacher since 2000. She taught as a Title One teacher for six years in the fourth grade, and for the rest of her career, she has taught and currently teaches second grade. In her free time, Mrs. Grodek loves to volunteer around the city of Brooklyn. When she is not volunteering, she is most definitely reading. Something you may not know about her is that she is on the Brooklyn City Council.
Q: What important qualities are needed to be a successful teacher?
A: “You need to be patient, empathetic, and have a good base of knowledge of how people learn. You need to like working with people.”
Q: What is the most engaging lesson that you have taught so far?
A: “One of the things I like to do is start them with research projects. My favorite research project that we do is look up information on a polar animal, and the kids will make a google slide presentation about their polar animal. It’s really fun because they get so excited about the information they find online. I will hear lots of random animals.”
Q: How would you encourage parents to support their children’s education?
A: “It’s actually one of the good parts of the pandemic because we had to start really working with families a lot more than before. I think that’s continued because now, families expect to hear from me. Families are quicker to let me know what’s going on at home because that communication has been opened up.”
Q: What is the most rewarding aspect of teaching?
A: “Watching kids become readers. In second grade, they are still reading the beginning reader books, but by the end of second grade, they are reading chapter books, and that’s really fun to watch that grow.”
Q: How do you usually prepare for the first day of school?
A: “Look at what I did last year and decide what I want to keep and what I want to try that’s new. Right now, there are so many teachers online who share whether it’s blogs or things on Teacher Pay Teachers. Teachers just share, share, share.”
Q: If you were a fictional character from your favorite movie or book, who might you choose?
A: “I’ve been reading a lot of historical fiction about WWII, and most of the stories have really strong female characters, and I never knew how important the females were in WWII. They were spies, codebreakers, people who worked in roles that were left over when the men went into war, and I would like to be one of those women. I don’t think I’m brave enough to be a spy, but I think I could be a codebreaker.”
Q: What are you most passionate about?
A: “I am passionate about my own children and the children here at Brooklyn. My own children are adults, but I’m still very passionate about their lives. I’m probably their biggest cheerleader. The children here in Brooklyn, I think I have more of an impact, but I’m also their cheerleader, too.”
Q: What challenges have you faced throughout your life?
A: “I’ve had two big challenges. The first was losing my mom to cancer; she was only 58-years-old, so that was a hard time for me. The second challenge has been helping my younger son graduate from college and getting settled into a job, settled into a house, and watching him go through that has been hard.”
Q: Do you work best alone or with a team?
A: “I probably work best alone, but I like to think that I will share anything I’m good at with a team. I think I’m best at doing the work myself. One thing I’m not good at is coming up with ideas. I’m usually better at carrying out somebody else’s idea.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in five years?
A: “Most likely, still in room 240 starting to think about retirement and the next part of my life.”
Thank you Mrs. Grodek for giving us the opportunity to interview you. More importantly, thank you for your dedication to all of the students here in the Brooklyn City School District.
THE RETURN OF THE EYE 