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Paula Getz Interview
Paula Getz, one of this year’s Educator Prize winners, teaches Class V, and this year heads up the Lower School Robotics program. Paula has been teaching at Waterford since 2001, after a brief stint working on the development of a grammar program at the Waterford Institute. She hails from Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania. Recently, we caught up with Paula, to talk about her philosophy of teaching, her experiences teaching in the inner city, and sea-kayaking in Alaska. Following are excerpts from the interview.
So what was your own experience of fifth grade like? Was it wonderful, and you wanted to recreate it for others, or was it horrific, and you wanted to fix it?
I had a pretty dry teacher, named Mrs. Snyder. She was very strict; she wasn’t much of a role model at all. I looked forward to Science, which was much more hands-on, and had a lot more variety; it was a big change from Homeroom.
Was your Science teacher the reason you went into teaching?
No, I would say that the most influential teacher I had was my high school English teacher. His name was Mr. Rosemergy, but we just called him Doc. He had a new quotation on the board every day, which sometimes we discussed, and sometimes we didn’t; sometimes we were just left to ponder it on our own. We read terrific books — Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird — and I still model my classroom discussions on his style. The discussions were meaningful in a way that really made you think in new perspectives. Even his vocabulary quizzes made you think. They were riddles; he’d give us a passage from one of our books that described a character who was in turmoil, for example, and you had to figure out that the word was “turmoil.” I still do that with my classes. Doc had a shelf of books that had been banned by the school board, and he turned a blind eye when we explored it — we were, of course, fascinated by them — and told us to not tell him what we were reading. The comfort level in that class was key. He ran a tight ship, but there was too much engagement leaving no time for trouble.
Did you ever force your siblings to play school with you?
Actually, my dad had an old slate chalkboard that he and his sisters used to play with when they were kids; eventually it hung in our garage. Even in the middle of the winter, I’d be in the garage teaching away. I taught to an invisible audience; my brother Bill wouldn’t dream of sitting through any of my lessons. He is my only sibling and is two years older than I am. Occasionally, he tried to teach me, with my homework, but it rarely worked. He was more analytical, and I was more artistic.
So when did you decide to become a teacher? Did you have an alternative lifetime all mapped out, and it caught you off-guard, or did you know from the womb that that was what you wanted to do?
Well actually, my first major was science-based. I went to the University of Pittsburgh to become a dental hygienist, which I’d wanted to be since my junior year in high school. I threw myself into it right away: I took anatomy, and chemistry, and microbiology. It was a very intensive program; but the end of the first year, we were with patients. I had loved the classes, but the first time I put my hands in somebody’s mouth, I thought, What am I doing? And then I thought, my parents have paid tuition for this, and I don’t like it? I fretted about how to tell them, but they were supportive about me changing my major to education. I was nervous that the same thing might happen again, but I loved it from the get-go. It wasn’t work for me. Science became my minor.
What was your first school like?
My student teaching assignment was in an inner-city magnet school in Pittsburgh, whose emphasis was on French. Kids drove there from all over the place; there was a lot of diversity, and I loved it. The supervising teacher, however, was a real piece of work — at one point, he threw a desk at a kid. My mothering instinct took over; I encouraged the teacher to visit the faculty room as much as he wanted, and taught the class myself. It was great exposure to teaching kids at all levels of ability.
At what other kinds of school did you teach?
In Maryland, I taught a combined fourth and fifth grade class in an open classroom setting; after that, I taught fifth grade in the same school for five years. Later I moved to Colorado and lived in Vail. I stepped in for a teacher who was having a baby, and taught in a classroom that was basically a kitchen. I taught sewing to sixth graders, “life skills” to seventh graders, and cooking to eighth graders. It was a lot more interesting than the Home Ec classes I’d taken in high school, where we all learned to bake pizza crusts all at the same time, or learned where the spoons went. My students would look through cookbooks, and pick out whatever they wanted to prepare. The stained glass cookies they made were quite an undertaking. After my jaunt in Vail, I taught in Arizona, where I would teach the same class five times a day, to a total of about one hundred and fifty kids. It was a very eye-opening time professionally; when you teach the same thing five times in a row, you really get to experiment with different ways of teaching the same thing. You get to really think about what works and what doesn’t, and learn how one small decision can radically alter student understanding. I always told my last period that they got the best lesson because I had finally figured out the best way for me to teach it.
When did you make the the transition from public to private schools?
I have always been a firm believer in public schools, until I started to research the public schools in Utah and discovered that, in many schools, there are no computer labs, and no formal teaching of music and art. I found Waterford online, and Liz Elggren was taking a leave from fifth grade to have a baby. I went through the interview process for the Class V position and was hired. I was fortunate to have such an opportunity fall into place so easily.
And I hear that you’ve become a recruiter for Waterford yourself.
Yes! Two years ago, my friend Lewis and I went sea-kayaking southern Alaska. We spent one evening kayaking in Seward Bay and hiking in the surrounding area. There were only two in the group — Lewis and myself — and Hilary Lufkin was the guide. She said she was thinking of going into teaching, and I told her about Waterford, and now she teaches Class II here at Waterford. Not your usual story.
Other than sea-kayaking, how do you use your summers?
I love to travel; I go road-biking; I have two dogs, so I’m always on a walk. I visit family back east, and I read a lot. Last summer was my first time ever visiting Europe. Lewis and I spent three days in Paris, and then rented a barge and sailed down the Saone in the Burgundy area. Every corner you turned, was a postcard view. The beauty of the region was overwhelming at times. It was great; being on a barge really allowed you to enter those villages through the back door. We were happy the barge came with two bikes. We’d say, “Look, there’s a castle!”— and off we’d go.
So what are you going to do with your prize?
I’ve decided I want to travel. I bought “National Geographic’s Five Hundred Journeys of a Lifetime,” and curled up with it over Christmas break. I think I’m going to go to northern Italy — Florence and Tuscany. Lewis is a pilot, so the flying won’t cost very much, and we’ll just stay in Italy until the money runs out. Winning this prize was really amazing. The faculty meeting when they announce the recipients is always my favorite meeting of the year. You think about the level of respect and admiration you have for those who have been awarded the Prize in the past, and it’s really humbling.
So teaching ended up being the right choice?
Yes! I love these kids! Every day is different; they come up with things that are so above what you would expect. This group especially; if you set the bar high, they just do it. There is so much energy; sometimes they talk a lot, but you realize that they’re discussing the assignment. My class this year has a great sense of humor. I have a little bell that I use to get their attention, and one day I was complaining that they’re so enthusiastic and absorbed in what they’re doing that I need a gong, and one of my students went out and got one for me! I would have been driven crazy at a desk job; the grammar project I worked on at the Institute, where I sat at the computer all day, was completely draining. With teaching, I’m almost always moving; I rarely sit at my desk throughout the school day. If I am, I’m often crafting lessons. One aspect about teaching I like best is designing lessons that are engaging and encourage a desire to learn more. Everywhere I have taught I have found that kids have a desire to learn, but the consistency in which you find that at Waterford is beyond anything I ever thought I would find.