Veteran Teachers Back In The Classroom

By Susan Coney

Veteran, retired Newtown teachers Arline Lathrop and John Russo returned to the classroom this fall to present sixth graders at Reed Intermediate School with a lesson designed to help them formulate personal goals and directed them on how to use those goals to become more successful in their lives.

Both teachers joined forces to present the lesson, “Joining Hands for the Common Good,” to several clusters at the intermediate school.

Working with students from Barb Mancher and Sara Strait’s classes, Ms Lathrop and Mr Russo addressed ways and held activities to help the sixth graders design a plan or mission statement to help them be successful citizens. During the lesson Ms Lathrop asked the children if they knew what a mission statement was. Few could put into words what they thought such a statement entailed. Ms Lathrop clarified it for the students by telling them that a mission statement is “your plan of what kind of a person you want to become.”

Ms Lathrop said that people who are successful have focus. They set goals for themselves and develop and follow a plan. She emphasized that sometimes a person may need to reevaluate their goal or change them. She urged the students to design a mission statement and to use it in the sixth grade. “When you think about it, you have 1,440 minutes in a day. Look at your mission statement for one minute everyday and focus to make sure you are following it. If you do this, I promise you this will be your best school year ever,” she told the group.

The students, under the guidance of Ms Lathrop, Mr Russo, Mrs Mancher, and Mrs Strait, worked to formulate and share their mission statements for the year 2005-2006.