Teachers
Exemplary Boston Public School teachers with experience teaching English Language Learners provide all of the direct academic instruction in Project ALERTA. Many of these teachers are Latino and were English Language Learners themselves. Almost all of them have been fixtures in their respective schools for many years, making them an important resource for and conduit to our parent population.
Project ALERTA carefully selects teachers who are passionate about creating lessons that address the whole child and emphasize creativity for our young learners. All of our teachers have been trained to create thematic, project-based, interdisciplinary curriculum, which provides students with multiple access points to the material. This marriage of the arts, humanities, sciences, and traditional academic disciplines is important for the students to develop a love of learning.
Our teachers are also focused on allowing children to have a role in planning the curriculum offered. ALERTA students choose the projects they create and the books they read. Often times, students are consulted by their teachers to help them choose the theme for the year, thus allowing them to feel agency in their learning.
During an ALERTA teacher focus group in Fall '09, teachers talked about how ALERTA gives them the opportunity to spend more time with students and teach interesting and challenging subjects and skills they would not have time to cover during the regular school day. As one teacher stated: “I think the ALERTA teachers –you choose to teach there, and therefore, you just love to be there, you love to be a part of that “familia” –that you will always be involved with, and the students too.”
Without a doubt, ALERTA teachers work tirelessly as enthusiastic and innovative educators capable of achieving a high level of commitment among their ALERTA students and willing to go the extra mile for them. The teachers always show extreme sensitivity to ALERTA students’ unique needs as they gently encourage and challenge them to meet increasingly higher expectations.
OUR TEACHING STAFF FOR 2012-13
- Gloria Austrich
- José Sánchez
- Donald Gianniny
- Ramona Mejía
- Angela Burgos
- Haydeé Irizarry
- Alicia Fuentes
O'Donnell Elementary School
Gloria Austrich
Gloria was born in Habana, Cuba and emigrated to the United States in 1966 through the Freedom Flights program, a political asylum program for Cuban emigres. Bilingual education did not exist at the time, so her parents "home-schooled" her while she learned English in the Cambridge Public Schools and then in the Boston Public Schools from which she graduated (Girls’ Latin School). Gloria obtained a bachelors degree in biology and psychology from Boston University, a masters in administration and Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) from Johnson State College in Vermont, a masters in special education from Eastern Nazarene College and a CAGS in school psychology from UMass Boston. Gloria has taught in different capacities in regular education and special education as a bilingual teacher in Boston Public Schools for 14 years and has been a bilingual school psychologist for BPS for 12 years. She has been involved with the ALERTA program for 6 years now. She really enjoys the classroom environment because she loves to work directly with the students and be part of their intellectual and personal growth. As an exiled immigrant, she especially believes in the importance of a solid foundation in education and exposure to limitless positive experiences that will allow students to pursue their dreams. She also believes in the empowerment of any ethnic group through education. In her spare time, Gloria loves to create through cooking and enjoys her surroundings through cycling. She also enjoys the company of her two older sons and husband.
José Rafael Sánchez, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, came from a large family of five brothers. His father was a retired veteran, thus his family has loved the political environment of the island, always fighting for lost causes. José enjoys his job as a Bilingual Speech-language Pathologist working with students in Boston Public Schools, some of them with special disabilities. He joined the ALERTA staff in 2003 during the summer. It was such an amazing experience working with a different student population that he fell in love immediately with the program. Since then, he has been an ALERTA teacher every year in the Blackstone after-school as well as the summer program at UMass Boston. This year he will be teaching ALERTA at the O'Donnell in East Boston. José admires the fact that ALERTA provides the students and teachers with unique opportunities for hands-on activities and a student-centered curriculum which opens up a whole new world for students. He loves to engage his students in creative activities even in math. José has been a part of a theater company “Escena Latina Teatro,” since 1992. It is the only theater company in Boston that presents Spanish performances. He has served as director, production assistant, and, more recently, as an actor. During his free time, José loves to travel.
Hennigan Elementary School
Don likes to explore. Whether it’s new ideas, places, or people, he tries to nurture that same sense of curiosity and thirst to learn in his students. He has taught a variety of themes in the many years he has been with ALERTA: Ecosystems, Oceans, Hennigan Peacemakers, and Energy and the Environment. Don has two Masters degrees, Early Education Leadership and Policy from Wheelock College, and Urban Education from Simmons College. In his undergraduate years in Friends World College, he spent nine months in Nepal and India, and almost 2 years in Guatemala, where he learned through first-hand appreciation of other cultures. He’s been teaching English Language Learners in the Boston Public Schools for nine years, the last five and a half years as a fifth grade SEI (Sheltered English Immersion) teacher at the Hennigan Elementary School.
Hurley K-8 School
Ramona Mejía was born in the Dominican Republic. She immigrated to the U.S. because, while vacationing here several times, she realized that people could be themselves, express themselves freely, and through hard work, could accomplish their goals and become whoever they wanted to be. Ramona obtained her Masters degree in Law from Santo Domingo, DR and then a Masters in Education. She has been a 3rd grade teacher at the Hurley K-8 School for about 20 years. She had been an ALERTA teacher in the late 1980s when ALERTA was first developed, and has now come back to ALERTA since 2010. What she likes best about teaching in the ALERTA program is that it gives Latino students an opportunity to become leaders, and because the Hurley is a dual language school, she can teach the program in Spanish, thus giving students a chance to develop further their first or second language skills.
Winship Elementary School
Angela was born in Brooklyn, New York. She earned her B.A. from Boston College and Masters in education from Boston University. Angela has taught in Boston Public Schools as a bilingual teacher for 25 years and for the last 10 years in regular education. She was a former ALERTA after-school and summer teacher during the 1980’s when the program originated. Angela is enjoying her return to teaching ALERTA at the Winship Elementary School. She believes students are the center of the learning process, and ALERTA engages students and teachers in the process of inquiry, engagement, discovery, and thoughtful reflection. Angela, Dr. Maria Brisk and Sara Ruth Harmela are co-authors of the book entitled Situational Context of Education: A Window Into the World of Bilingual Learners.
Sumner Elementary School
Alicia FuentesAlicia Fuentes, born in Panama City, Panama, moved to Boston in 1985 with a 3-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son. She received a Bachelors Degree from Lesley College and a Masters degree from Boston University. She worked as a bilingual teacher for many years and is now a third grade SEI Spanish teacher at the Sumner Elementary School, where she has begun to teach ALERTA again this year. Alicia taught ALERTA many years ago, when the program originated in the 1980s. Alicia loves to travel and learn about other cultures; she has traveled to Korea, Japan, Colombia, Spain and many Caribbean Islands where she learned part of their culture.
