March 1 was Employee Appreciation Day! We are celebrating our team members all month long by sharing their stories. Meet Mel Bojarzin, a Teacher at The Learning Spectrum’s North East campus who encourages creativity and collaboration in her classroom.
What is your favorite thing about working here?
My favorite thing about working at TLS is definitely the students. My class is full of so many creative, generous, kindhearted kids. I love coming to work and getting to help them learn and grow even more. Seeing the kids in a place where they are able to flourish and learn in ways adapted to and for them is amazing.
What keeps you coming to work each day?
I enjoy my job. I get to come in and teach some of my favorite subjects every day – Biology and Chemistry. I get to enjoy the reactions and excitement on my students’ faces when we complete an experiment, or they master something that was hard for them. I love seeing students who previously isolated and kept to themselves voluntarily joining conversations and interacting in an unfacilitated social scenario. The biggest thing is that even on the hard days, I enjoy my job. I never have days where I dread going to work. My coworkers and the students are just amazing people I get to enjoy my work days with.
How do you make an impact on students’ lives?
I give them a voice. I encourage them (within our class rules) to question me; I will debate if they want and admit when I am wrong. When we as a class create our rules, I make it known which rules we can discuss, and which ones are concrete. I make sure they each give me input on what goals they feel they need to work on around Individualized Education Plan (IEP) time. They all have access to their IEPs every day, I am a big believer in building that self-advocacy they need. If you were to ask my students it would be that my class is a safe place, I encourage creativity, and “You’re like a weirder Ms. Frizzle and its fun.”
Last year, we rolled out our BetterTogether guiding principles. Which one of our values resonates with you most personally and why?
Collaborative would be what resonates the most with me. In my class, I have a variety of learners and I encourage them to work together and include everyone. We have a social skills time where once or twice a week we play Dungeons and Dragons, completely led and planned by students. They work together to figure out characters and their skills and develop personalities for each character. As they play, they need to see through the perspective of their designated character as well as still think about their teammates when they make decisions. The DM is a student, so they also need to be flexible when it comes to a peer being in charge. I have one student who isn’t a fan of playing, so he helps a fellow classmate who tends to get overwhelmed. I like to do collaborative tests where everyone has to participate and end up seeing the other kids walking peers through to the correct answers.
What does a “day in the life” look like for your role?
I usually get in early and do a bit of housekeeping. As students come in, I make sure I say “good morning” to each student that walks in. I start our morning meeting at 9:10 a.m. and check in with the class. We go over the plan for the day using our visual daily schedule as I go over the assignments. I remind them about due dates and ask if they have any questions, comments, or concerns. We usually take a five-minute transition break between subjects. At lunchtime they are free to do their own thing socially, if it’s quiet I liven it up with my vast knowledge of corny jokes. We end our day with social skills and daily jobs. Each student has a task they do for a week, and we have a “Supervisor” that goes around and checks that they are complete. After my last student leaves, I spend that time getting ready for the next day as well as catching up on grading and some of the “extras” I do like Sunshine Committee or Learning 4 Life farm.
Can you talk a little bit about your career trajectory and what led you to where you are now?
Between volunteering in high school and work I have 16 years of experience in this field. I volunteered and eventually worked at Hattie Larlham with children. I left there when I moved to Columbus for school, to pursue a degree in Biology at the Ohio State University. I got a job with the State of Ohio at a developmental center and switched my major to Psychology. I worked there for six years before getting my job here at TLS. I started as a Paraprofessional in Kindergarten and then moved up to high school. After two years of being a Paraprofessional in high school, I took over as Lead Teacher in 2022.
What has been your proudest moment or accomplishment in your role?
By far the thing I am proudest of is the social environment in my class. These kids – I cannot brag enough – have come so far. On a normal day, when given breaks they are all grouped together talking and joking with each other. If one student is working on a puzzle, two or three more will walk over and join and they will be having such wonderful conversations while doing that. When a student asks me for help, 80 percent of the time a fellow classmate will say “I can help with that if you want” before I can say anything. Even when they disagree with each other, I can see the strides they have made when it comes to appropriately debating and using coping skills.
What is something about you that not many people know?
My therapy animals in my classroom are two bearded dragons named Ozzie and Ziggy and I used to bake/cook professionally for seven years; I make a mean cheesecake!