It's nice to have a friend on the first day of school -- even if you're the teacher. For Dana M. Luff, 24, and Jacy F. Poultney, 22, being paired as a team with someone they knew has made their first year of school as easy as ABC.
Considering their string of firsts -- job, classroom and students -- many of whom had not attended school previously -- you might expect these two newbies to be nervous Nellies. They have been anything but.
"Fantastic," class paraprofessional Nikki Howard said about the twosome. "I'm amazed, especially because Jacy does a lot of the adaptations for the inclusion children, and it's like she's been doing it for years. It takes a lot of outside time."
The class has 22 students. The roster assigns 18 pupils to Luff. Poultney, as the special education teacher, has four inclusion students.
However, it's not a split of "my kids, your kids," Luff said. The friends collaborate. Territorial issues don't exist, and the work is divided evenly except at report card time. Luff will fill out 18 reports, while Poultney will complete four.
"Not only do we have each other," Luff said, "but we have Nikki."
"I would go home and cry every night without Nikki," Poultney said. "She is a resource in itself."
Transdisciplinary describes the inclusion of every student in the curriculum. The students learn science and social studies, Luff said, and are doing experiments. A transdisciplinary approach also allows speech and occupational therapists to provide needed services in the classroom.
Free centers at the end of the day allow the children to enjoy an activity of their choosing such as painting, pretending in the kitchen or playing with a dinosaur toy or blocks. When the inclusion students are not in their wheelchairs, it is impossible to tell them apart from the other students.
That is the way it should be, said Connie Poultney, Jacy's mother, who is also a special education teacher.
"I can't stress how passionate she [Jacy] is about inclusion," her mother said.
A year ago, life couldn't be more different for Luff and Poultney. Luff, then a graduate student at Wilmington University, was doing her student teaching at Cedar Lane Early Childhood Center in Middletown. Poultney was enjoying life as a full-time University of Delaware undergrad.
Both felt well-prepared for their careers. Luff received a bachelor's degree in human services, education and public policy with a minor in disability studies from UD and interned at Easter Seals. In addition, she taught children with disabilities this summer.
But it was Luff's sixth-grade teacher who made the defining impression on her. "She went above and beyond what a good teacher could be classified as and was an exceptional teacher in my eyes," Luff said. "She showed me that not only could you have a passion for learning, but that you could care for each student as an individual as well."
Poultney's only dream has been to be a special education teacher like her role model, her mother. She worked as a paraprofessional and teacher during the summers and student-taught in Cecil County, Md.
Both of the women recalled their time in kindergarten as a caring, fun and safe environment. That remembrance has guided them in creating a similar environment.
Both teachers scatter positive reinforcement around like pixie dust and emphasize sharing and playing nicely.
Luff put her former cheerleading skills to use as she sang a silly song about peanut butter and an alphabet song in which she signed the letters.
"I am thrilled to have them," said assistant principal Lucia Weathers. "They're enthusiastic and energetic and they like what they do."
As new teachers, Poultney and Luff have more homework than the students. Nearly every day ends with some type of after-school meeting about mentoring or staffing with all the kindergarten teachers.
They eat lunch together every day, and they try to fill that break with lighthearted conversation instead of classroom business.
Poultney has friends who are new teachers as well. They don't have a partner to teach with and feel stressed by their new responsibilities. "We're so glad we're in it together."
Jacy F.
Poultney
AGE: 22
RESIDENCE: Middletown
FAMILY: Parents Connie and Lenny Poultney
EDUCATION: Middletown High School graduate;
bachelor's degree in elementary education with a concentration in special
education from the University of Delaware
HOBBIES: Shopping, the beach
GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT: "The position that I'm in right now.
This is my absolute dream job."