WETHERSFIELD – — Thekey to great teaching, says local Teacher of the Year Erin LaFleche, is taking events or experiences in children's lives and integrating them into learning.
Case in point: a student in LaFleche's second grade class at Emerson-Williams Elementary School recently moved from Florida, and last week's storm was the first time he'd ever seen snow. The boy, normally reserved and reluctant to speak, squealed with delight as fluffy flakes blanketed the school grounds.
LaFleche immediately recognized a teaching moment. Even though it was against school rules, she took her class outside so students could share the boy's first snow experience and later write essays about it.
"That was the moment that told me sometimes you have to stop and smell the roses -- or sometimes you have to stop and touch the snow," she said. "When we came back inside, I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm so glad we didn't let that moment pass.' It was really magical for the other kids too."
Innovation like that led the district to name LaFleche its teacher of the year for 2012-13. She got the news on the last day of school last June.
"I was sitting on the floor and in walks the superintendent and the head of curriculum with a large bouquet of flowers," LaFleche recalled. "I cried and the kids got me tissues. It was very surprising and moving. I was very, very honored."
For LaFleche, 34, teaching is a family affair. Her mother was also a second-grade teacher. She recalls "growing up in the classroom," affixing gold stars to papers and helping with other school tasks.
"My mom's always been my idol growing up," LaFleche said. "I saw the positive impact she had on the classroom. I always wanted to be a teacher. I thought it was exciting and challenging."
LaFleche grew up in North East, Pa., a small town on Lake Erie famous for its vineyards. Her father worked for Welch's. When she was 15, the family moved to Concord, Mass., where the grape company is headquartered.
LaFleche attended the University of Massachusetts and came to Connecticut so her husband could attend the University of Connecticut Law School.
She got hired straight out of college as a second-grade teacher at Emerson-Williams. Thirteen years later, she's still there doing and loving the same job. Burnout is not in her vocabulary.
"I haven't had a bored moment in my teaching life," she said. "Every class is different. What works in one class flops in another."
In her convocation speech at the beginning of this year, LaFleche identified what she views as the three components of good teaching: being caring, showing kids the meaning and purpose of what they are learning, and connecting instruction to students' lives.
LaFleche, for example, has her students write letters to the authors of books they read. When the author writes back, it's "magical," she said.
"They see their work making a difference, and they have author feedback," she said.
LaFleche devotes much of her spare time to Specs for Little Heroes, a charity that she and her husband founded. The organization provides specialized glasses to children with retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer.
LaFleche and her husband started the charity after their then-3-year-old son Justin lost an eye to the disease and they discovered that insurance would not pay for his protective glasses. Justin, now 4, is cancer free.
LaFleche expressed deep gratitude to her Emerson-Williams colleagues for their support during her son's illness. They took up a collection that helped cover the cost of her son's glasses, she said.
"We don't just work together," she said. "We're really family."
LaFleche also has a daughter.