As the Class of 2016 steps into a life beyond Bromfield School, they are joined by four veteran teachers who will retire at the end of the school year: Denise Keating, Janet Lombard, Gioanne Wagner, and Tom Reynolds. This week, the Press profiles the first three. For an appreciation of Tom Reynolds, please see the admiring profile by Bromfield graduate Tyler Alderson in the April 7, 2016, issue of the Press.
Janet Lombard
I met with Janet Lombard right outside her room at Bromfield, where she could keep an eye on the small group of students in her study hall. I remarked that I was impressed at how quiet they were and how engaged in their work.
Janet Lombard catches up on some grading for “mis alumnos.” (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
“My students are really, really good,” she said, “no matter if it’s in class or study. And they are always polite.” As we talked further, it became apparent that Lombard is someone who loves kids and is passionate about sharing her knowledge with them. Her motto is “If you are fair to them, they will be fair to you.”
“It is time for the next adventure, but I love what I do,” said Lombard. She recounted a story from this past weekend at her niece’s wedding. A boy about the age of her eighth-graders was having difficulty with something and she found herself explaining to him, “First you do this, and then … “ She laughed, saying, “You’ll never take the teacher out of me.”
Janet Lombard has been teaching at Bromfield for 23 years; before that she taught for about 10 years at three different schools, and then spent 11 years at home with her own children. Her work at Bromfield has been mostly with Spanish 8. “I always take time for the kids,” she said. She has online office hours, and students know they can call her anytime. And they do—early in the morning, when she’s out to dinner, and at many other times. And it’s always OK.
Graduating a semester early from Trinity College in Washington, D.C. (now Trinity University), with a major in political science, she spent a semester at Portland-Gorman in Maine for her teaching credentials. Lombard went on to get two master’s degrees over the years and has taught French as well as Spanish in both middle school and high school.
Inspired by her mother
Her teaching career was partly inspired by her mother, who was a teacher when Lombard was growing up and was, she said, a role model. And, Lombard said, she herself has always loved kids. When her mother died, Lombard said she took off only the day of the funeral because the kids “nurtured” her.
I asked what changes she has seen at Bromfield over the years. Lombard replied that while the administration has changed, she has always been encouraged to teach in her own style, doing what she thinks is best for kids. The lack of restriction has allowed Lombard to teach her curriculum with ongoing energy and passion. Because she is truly committed to meeting each student’s needs, she is constantly revising her approaches, and one class is never exactly like another, where the needs may be different. She said the administration has always encouraged her to follow out an idea or a change that will better serve her students.
Lombard is looking forward to spending time with her four-and-a half-year-old grandson and his baby sister arriving in July and to sharing with them her love of learning.
Denise Keating
“I always knew I wanted to be a teacher,” said middle school Spanish teacher Denise Keating. Growing up, she loved school and all her teachers. She took German in ninth grade and fell in love with learning a language. At the small college she attended in Pennsylvania, she added Spanish and graduated certified to teach both languages. This she did for seven years at three different schools before leaving to have children. Even during those seven years at home, she was still a teacher—working at a nursery school and coordinating and teaching in the Global Child program for Harvard elementary students.
Denise Keating takes a break at the end of the school day.
Having seen her last child off to school full time, Keating was ready to get back to teaching. She started at Bromfield with a part-time job in the middle school with what sounds like a very challenging task—teaching one class a day on a rotating schedule. That led to a full-time job, and Señora Keating has been teaching Spanish 6 and 7 for the past 17 years.
Keating loves teaching and helping kids learn another language. Even students who don’t find success overall still learn, she said. She loves to hear them talking Spanish and gets a kick out of hearing how kids
have engaged in the language outside of school. Students are excited to tell her that they could understand someone speaking Spanish in the grocery store or that they tried speaking Spanish when they were traveling.
Bromfield has a strong world language department, said Keating, adding that many students go on to major in language at college or to use their language after leaving school. She likes that the standards are rigorous and the bar is kept high. By the end of Spanish 6 (the first year of the language), students are able to converse in the language, and a year later they can write a paragraph as well. She noted that unlike in some other subjects and to the chagrin of some students, spelling definitely counts!
Keating said that the greatest change she has seen is the increased use of technology. “When I first taught in the ’70s, I used the mimeograph,” she said, laughing. Now, in a short period of time, teachers have had to learn to use Smartboards, PowerSchool, where teachers post all grades online, and iPads, which all sixth-graders got this year. Keating said the start of this school year was very difficult, but even though she knew she would be leaving, Keating made herself learn and use the new technologies. Teaching now demands a constant shift to learning new technology, Keating said. She thinks technology allows students and parents to be more informed, but she said there needs to be a balance: “Kids still need to use a pencil and paper.”
Over the years there have been increasing demands on teachers in addition to learning new technologies, Keating said, citing extensive documentation for teacher evaluation, creating district-determined measures for student assessment, and keeping up with emails. She said the Bromfield administration has been helpful and understanding as teachers try to handle the increased demands.
Living in Harvard and having her three children graduate from Bromfield has been wonderful, Keating said. It hasn’t bothered her at all to live in the same town in which she teaches. In fact, she loves seeing her students at the General Store or elsewhere around town. Still, she is excited about retiring. She looks forward to the opportunity to read anytime, not just falling asleep at night, to travel to visit family and friends who have moved away, and to spend more time with her young grandson. “Nothing big for now,” she said, but future plans involve retiring to Cape Cod.
Gioanne Wagner
Gioanne Wagner, the middle school French teacher for Bromfield, has made contributions to the lives of countless kids that have been nothing short of admirable. Growing up among a family of avid travelers, Gioanne understood the frustration of language barriers and the constricting limits they place on one’s ability to express oneself. This frustration, however, would be the determining factor that would lead her in the direction of language teaching. An alumna of the University of Toronto, Wagner majored in French language and minored in Spanish. Patient and empathetic in nature, it is no surprise that interacting with the kids she has taught has been the favorite part of her career. Whether she is building a young kid’s confidence or reaching out to another going through a hard time, it is clear that she has been able to “affect change in a good way,” as she has aspired to do.
When asked what changes she would like to make to the education system, she questioned the true necessity of relying on test scores to determine a student’s success. Clearly, her key to having such successful and inquiring students is through her ability to see potential in all of them at a young age, preferring evidence of progress to testing as a measure of success. Her classes are known to emphasize participation, which students track on a grid each quarter. Therefore, all students have a chance not just to practice the language, but also to make mistakes and bounce ideas off each other.
Praise for Bromfield colleagues
Along with missing the kids, she is reluctant to leave behind her fellow faculty, describing her dynamic with them as one with much “collegiality and support.” With them, she has learned about the vital nature of collaboration, of working as a team. She mentioned, without hesitation, that her time at Bromfield has been the “better half” of her career. As for the language, it has been her life.
Outside of the classroom, Wagner tends to her gardens, makes additions to her scrapbook, and pores over novels—preferably the romantics and anything penned by the Brontë sisters. As for her plans for the future, they include taking a year off from a demanding job. After that, she may consider occasionally working as a substitute teacher or tutoring students on the side.
