I like to dance. I go to Old Donation School to dance every Wednesday. I like that there’s really no such thing as bad dancing because you’re just expressing yourself.

Do you want to be a dancer when you grow up?

When I grow up I want to be a cheerleading teacher. I like to teach stuff and help my sister. She wants to be a cheerleader in middle school. I’m trying to train her and it’s really fun for me.

Help me finish this sentence: I think it’s important to always…

…be kind and listen. When you are kind you treat people the way you want to be treated, and I would like to be treated kindly so I treat other people kindly. It’s good to listen because if there was something going on and you didn’t know what to do, you’re just sitting there and sitting there.

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I’m on a competitive dance team and also an improv comedian. I started doing improv in theatre and so it translated from my schoolwork to outside of school in a real-life way to apply my knowledge.

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I like science and reading most. I like to read. It’s kind of in the family. Everyone in my family likes to read. And I like science because I want to be an engineer when I grow up so I want to know how to do all this stuff. I want to make things.

What are you thinking about making or inventing?

I don’t know. Maybe a wheelchair for if both your arms and your legs don’t work. It could have something like a microphone to control the wheelchair.

What else?

Hmmm.

Maybe a plane that doesn’t use jets that are dangerous. Maybe something that’s less flammable to make a plane.

Have you read “Rat Man?” It’s really good. It’s kind of a character I can relate to, except I’m not in middle school. He has kind of an annoying sister. He likes to read comics.

Why is it called “Rat Man?”

Because the kid gets an ad in the back of a comic and it turns out that the ad is real. It lets him be a superhero. You can mail it away and it ends up coming that day. So when he put the suit on it gave him powers, like flying for some reason. I’m not sure how rats fly. He has the rat squeak—a really, really loud squeak. He can swim really fast and he can hear. There’s one thing: he can only be Rat Man for a summer. Then, the very last day, he gets caught in the movie theater and the suit gets burned. He loses his powers.

What’s a superpower you would like to have?

Hmmm.

Flight! I want to be able to fly. Though, chameleon powers would be pretty cool because you could crawl and you could turn invisible because chameleons kind of do that.

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I like to swim because I like to be cold sometimes and it’s very refreshing. I swim two times a day during the summertime and normally I do it once a week during the school time. Swimming is my favorite thing to do outside of school.

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If I could give this year’s eighth-graders any advice on high school, it would be to take advantage of every opportunity the school division has to offer you. I gained invaluable hands-on experience and training from Kempsville High School and the Advanced Technology Center, and it helped me to earn a great job with the division’s Department of Technology right out of high school. The academy and extended learning opportunities afforded to Virginia Beach students are unparalleled—do your research and take advantage of them all.

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Let me tell you what—these kids change the world. They change the world! I’m 75 years old and every time I walk through that door I learn something new. I’m not kidding.

It’s been 18 years that I’ve been volunteering with the same teacher. This is our future. They come into your heart and they stay there forever. I have kids that I met 18 years ago—they’ll come to the door and say, “Mrs. Seltzer, it’s me.” No matter what’s going on in my world, when I walk in this classroom it makes it all better. I have kept every single card, note and letter that a child has written me, and someday, when I’m dead, they’re going through this stuff and they’ll say, “I wonder why she kept these things.”

I had a doctor tell me one time—and this is very interesting—if you can live your life as an adult but see the world through a child’s eyes, you’re going to be the happiest person on the face of the earth. And I’ve been blessed because when I walk in here on Fridays—these kids, they love you.

And I’m Mrs. Santa Claus! Did Ben tell you? It’s magic. They believe every word that comes out of my mouth. I have the coolest outfit and a magic violin. I have Rudolph and an elf. It’s magic. I’m already getting ready for Christmas. I have my Christmas presents all wrapped. Until my eyes—and my eyes are very, very bad—I’m going to do it until I can’t do it anymore.

I don’t do the last day of school because by the end of the year you love them, and I can’t come in here and say goodbye. They come into your heart and stay there forever. I don’t understand why more people don’t do this. This is my world.

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I like that I have a great school. I have a great principal and a great school counselor. I like my teacher. She’s very nice. She’s very helpful when I don’t understand something.

My favorite subjects right now are social studies and math. Math, I think, is really easy. What’s not really easy for me is division. In social studies we’re learning maps and it’s very fun. We’re able to color in the coastal plain and all five regions.

Have you thought about what you want to be when you grow up?

Kind of. I kind of want to be a doctor, but I don’t really think I’ll be a doctor because I get sickened by blood. I’m thinking about being a teacher but that’s too hard. I think I’m going to be a veterinarian.

What do you like to do when you’re not at school?

I like to play with my best friend, Rylee. I love going to my grandma’s house because she’s so nice. They have a big pool that I can go in—but not right now, and we have a big, nice room.

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This is my first time volunteering with WATCH D.O.G.S. I get to come in and see my kids during the day and actually give back and help the kids. I love kids. I have a fifth-grader and I have a preschooler here.

My kids saw me on the announcements and we took a picture. I walked my son down to his art class and then I went outside with my daughter while she was doing PE. I have a schedule of other classes to visit and help.

What would you say to others about taking time to volunteer in their child’s school?

I think especially for dads, if you want to implement change – volunteer. If I’m here I can see my kids. I’m here. I’m a superhero. I can help.

I’m retired military and I go to school full time Monday through Thursday, so my Fridays are open. I’m going to school for human services but since I’ve been here today, I think I have a new calling. Maybe I need to work in a school and do something with kids because they are our future.

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I like reading. My favorite book is “My Side of the Mountain.” It’s about a kid who left his family and went onto a mountain. He’s surviving on his own by collecting nuts and deer skin, and he lives under the stump of a tree. He has this pet hawk.

What do you like to do outside of school?

I play golf. I go to the First Tee. You go through the core values like honesty, judgment, caring—all that. It helps me be able to hit the ball and to know all the core values for school, like not to be mean. You want to be honest in school. You want to help others and use your judgment to make good decisions.

Have you thought about what kinds of jobs you might interested in when you’re older?

When I get older I want to become a firefighter. My dad is a firefighter and I want to do his job. You can help people and put out fires. You can help people that are in car accidents, like if the door is stuck and they can’t get out. So, it’s just helping other people when they are in trouble or in danger.

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I dance. I really like to do that. I also like to hang out with my little sisters. They’re 12 and 5 so I like to watch them, hang out with them and play games with them. I love dogs. I like to dogsit if I can. They’re my family so I love them a lot, and I’m just trying to get as much time with my family and pets as I can right now because I’m planning to go off to college.

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I’m a military wife. The Navy is what brought me here; it’s a huge part of my life. Virginia Beach has welcomed me into their division, and I feel right at home here despite the fact that I have moved around. Among the three other districts I have been in as a military wife, Virginia Beach is definitely a premier district and I couldn’t be more honored to work for Virginia Beach City Public Schools. This division does not compare to the previous ones just because of the amount of teacher capacity that it helps build; meaning, they allow me to grow professionally and I know that whatever the division gives me that’s related to curriculum is absolutely 100 percent research-based and best practice. So I feel very comfortable teaching here.

Outside of school I actually have my very own YouTube channel that relates to things that I do in my classroom and things that I do to help prepare to be a teacher. My first year teaching was awful. I didn’t have anyone to look to and, with the wake of technology and how many resources we have, I feel like I can maybe help a first year teacher to have a year that maybe isn’t so awful. I’ve had a pretty good response so far and I thoroughly enjoy being able to track what I do on a day-to-day basis so that other teachers can be helped by that.

What kinds of things do you share?

I plan lessons on there. I share how I make groups and teacher preparation. I did a whole series on how I set up my classroom and places to go to get cheap materials but materials that are dependable and aesthetically-pleasing. Then I also did a series on some of the things I’m using as far as technology. I’m a Seesaw ambassador and so I did some video tutorials on how to set up your Seesaw class and ways to use Seesaw. So, again, it’s just a resource for teachers so they can have someone to depend on besides their colleagues if they want some different ideas.

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I like playing with my friends after school. I also like, when I finish my homework, to just play with my dog sometimes. His name is Bo. He’s a Golden Retriever mixed with a Labrador. We had another dog but he passed away two years ago, so Bo’s new and he’s like one and a half.

My favorite subject in school is math. It’s not very hard but it’s not very easy either. It’s fun to do. It’s just the fact that you get to figure out and solve a little mystery. Every single equation can be like a mystery.

When I grow up I kind of want to be a mechanic. One day over the summer I was helping my grandpa fix a car because we were going to drive it from New Hampshire to Virginia. He was fixing the car and I wanted to help, so he let me help him.

I think it would be cool to invent a flying car because then people wouldn’t always have to pay for transportation by planes and it would be safer.

Would there be stoplights in the sky?

Yes! I can invent those, too.

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I’m really happy where I am, working in third grade. I previously taught first grade for five years, so this is my first year in third grade. I’m still trying to learn the curriculum. Luckily, Virginia Beach gives us a lot of resources to help me wrap my mind around all of it. I’m just so happy to work in this district because it really is a great district. I went through elementary school, middle school and high school in Virginia Beach. I graduated from Green Run High School. I haven’t made it back there yet. They keep us busy here. It’s a lot of fun.

I’ve had the ESL cluster the whole time I’ve been here. That’s always interesting. It’s a nice challenge for me. I took Spanish all through high school and thank goodness because that’s really helped, especially with our population here. I’m still kind of nervous talking to parents but the kids really get a kick out of it when I try. They teach me so much, too.

I actually have some of the kids now that I had in first grade and the growth from first grade to the beginning of third grade is incredible to see. That’s why I loved being in first grade so much – from the beginning of the year to the end of the year is just worlds apart. It’s the same thing with the end of first grade to the beginning of third grade – worlds apart. I‘m a little nervous to be in an SOL grade but I’m looking forward to the challenge so much.

What led you to teaching?

I didn’t always know I wanted to be a teacher. I was kind of one of those people who didn’t really know what to do. My family always put an emphasis on education. Homework was the first thing we had to do before we could play outside. I was the first one in my whole family to graduate from college. That was a really big accomplishment just for myself, and making my parents proud was always something that I wanted to do. I worked at a bank for a couple of years and then it wasn’t challenging enough for me. I thought, what could be more challenging and different every single day? And that led me to teaching. I’m really happy that I did take that path because every day is a challenge. Every day is something new. I get up hours early so I can get here early because, honestly, I do want to prepare myself, but I really can’t wait to come to work every day. My students make my heart so full.

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I love what I do. I’m kind of like flint — looking to create sparks wherever I go. This is something I enjoy doing and never expected to do. I was happy teaching. I enjoyed the classroom and under David French and his leadership, he wanted to know what a digital classroom looked like. He gave me the wings to figure it out. It was an amazing ride. Over five years it was just constantly pushing the envelope and seeing what you could do with it. The opportunity chased me to transfer over to instructional technology. The last five years in technology have been crazy-through-the-roof. It’s been a killer wave to ride and to get people excited about the neat things it can do for them.

What do you hope your students take away from your lessons?

How to eliminate walls. How to think beyond because that’s what I’ve been asked to do is to go beyond the walls – go outside the box and become a risk taker. I already was a risk taker, but Dave French made me an even greater risk taker because he allowed me to shoot for the moon and see where it took me. So I want them to be able to look beyond a wall and figure out how to go there and not be held back by anything. And to be free enough, of course, enjoy learning and be lifelong learners and know that there are other jobs out there and they can do other things in technology because that’s their world. In 30 years they’re going to look at your phone and go, “Wow, it needed a battery? You had to charge it at the end of the day? Every day?” What the progression is going to be in their lifetime is going to be crazy. It’s an exciting thing to watch kids grow and take their learning into their own hands and be excited about that.

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Outside of school I usually go to a musical theatre group called the Hurrah Players and I do shows with them. Currently we are doing “Lion King” and I’m Simba so that’s fun. Acting – you just portray someone’s life that you might not ever get to live out but you can live it in a way through acting and that’s always a fun thing.

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I do three sports: soccer, gymnastics and dance. I go to Old Donation School for dance. It’s a gifted dance school just a couple of minutes away from here. I like jazz and hip-hop. I feel calm when I’m dancing. That’s how I calm down. For soccer, I am on a travel team. The farthest I go is Richmond and the Outer Banks. We had a game and this player kicked me in the back of the shin to get the ball from me. And gymnastics I might put hold on because it’s 7:30-9:00 p.m. and I will be tired. I like to do roundoff back handsprings on the floor and press handstands. I can do a roundoff back handspring on the grass. It’s a cartwheel/backflip. I also like art. I like to do clay because it feels cool to touch and then paint it when it’s dry.

Have you thought what you want to do when you grow up?

Not really, but what I’m thinking about being is a person who finds things deep underwater. I love animals. I like to do horseback riding sometimes, not always. And the good thing about what I want to be when I grow up is…well, I might be a zookeeper, somebody who studies animals – I don’t know what that’s called – or somebody who goes underwater to find cool new things because 50 percent of the ocean has not been explored yet.

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I was in the fire department. I resigned five years ago to be with the family more. I still practice as a paramedic on the weekends – on Saturday nights and Sundays. I usually do 24-hour shifts. I’ve been at Kempsville for almost five years. This is my fourth year as a special education assistant. I started out as a cafeteria monitor and subbing. This is actually where I went to school. This house that I’m in now is actually the house that I grew up in. It was awesome to be able to come back here and be with everybody here. I love doing this job. Every day is different and it’s amazing. I love being able to see a difference in these kids. I started a garden club two years ago. My kids love it.

How long am I going to do this? Probably until whenever. I mean, because I love it! Then on my side days or when I’m not here or as working as a medic, I’m at the golf course with both my kids.

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I really like practicing yoga. Like after a long day at school, its fun to detoxify. I’ve been doing it a year. I go with my mom. It’s a fun bonding experience. It gets us moving and just detoxifies both of us.

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My favorite subjects in school are reading and science. I like reading because I like to read different books. I like drama, suspense and mystery in my books to see what’s going to happen next. And I love science because I just love doing experiments and seeing how things are going to turn out when I do them. It’s really exciting. We did one the other day where our teacher, Ms. Kinsey, she put water in a water balloon and froze it for a couple of days, and then it turned into the shape of a balloon. It was really cool and we saw how it had air bubbles and cracks and all that. We talked about how it formed and did that. I just love it!

When you’re not at school, what are some things you like to do?

I love, love, LOVE to dance. I’ve been dancing since I was, like, three and a half. When I dance, I can be free and I can do anything. It’s like I’m flying and I can’t touch the ground. It’s amazing! I just love dance. I do different genres of dance. I did pointe for one year but I haven’t gone back to it. I do mostly lyrical. It’s really nice and elegant. I like jazz and modern dance. I did hip-hop for a year, too. I mostly do lyrical though. I also did competitive cheerleading for three years and I liked that, too. It was pretty nice because we got to travel to different places like Myrtle Beach, Richmond, Raleigh and D.C., but it got pretty tiring and I didn’t see my family as much, so I mostly do dance now.

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A few years ago our lead gardener retired. She approached me and said, “Hey Matt, you’re working in the garden next year.” And I said, “I am?” And she said, “Oh good! That’s not a ‘no.’” That’s kind of how it happened.

Last year was my first year. It was a transition year but I was really proud of how the kids really stepped up and showed an interest. Over the summer I wanted to make sure we could really keep things moving. I created a SignUpGenius so the kids and the parents could volunteer. I wanted it to be a community. Community is a big part of the classroom; it’s a big part of our school and I want it to be a part of our garden as well. We had parents, students and neighbors come in over the summer on Mondays. I had a core group of kids who came every single week. We had a blast! We got our fingernails dirty. Sometimes they took their shoes off and we just turned loose in the garden and did what needed to be done. Usually we pulled weeds and there were a couple of projects that we did. I was able to help the kids — under really strict supervision — use a wood burning iron for the first time. We used it to carve in some posts for signs to show what we were growing. It’s child-made. The point of it was to bring the kids back to the school under the context of community and fun. Sometimes kids just associate school with work and dread, and I wanted it to be a place where they feel welcome and involved and important. Everything in the garden was student-centered.

We’ve taken a few weeks off. You know what happens when you don’t take care of a garden for a few weeks — that’s kind of where we are now. But we’ll be starting up an Eco Club to meet throughout the school year. We’ll lead the school in working in the garden so we want to align it to some objectives. We’re looking for second grade to work on the Three Sisters and perhaps fifth grade to work on a Colonial garden to show what the Colonists may have grown. And then, even native plants for fourth grade because they’re doing Virginia studies.

There’s been a lot of help. A lot of teachers in the building have put in their expertise. I don’t have a green thumb so I don’t know why I’m leading the garden. Sometimes it just takes a person who is willing not to say, ‘No.’ I’m learning all kinds of new things about gardening, about plants and about ecology, and hopefully the students will join me on that learning journey.

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This is my first year at Arrowhead and my sixth in Virginia Beach. Arrowhead has been so welcoming and made me feel like I am where I need to be. I am big into flexible seating and letting kids find their own way to reaching their goals. The administration and staff here have been so supportive and energetic. Being a 1:1 school will be an amazing adventure and I can’t wait to see where this year takes us!

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I like to go to my church. I host at my church. I also like to spend time with my grandma and my mom. I like to spend time with my grandma because, when I was little, we used to do tea parties. We would have Aladdin tea cups and plates and stuff like that. Now, since I’m getting older, instead of doing tea parties we do more mature things like go shopping.

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I really like my second-grade teacher, Ms. Perez. She’s super energetic and happy, and she was an awesome Spanish teacher. She mixed in fun things with science experiments. I remember we did one where we read a book in the beginning of the year and then we did a science project that’s called Max Side Up. In the book, he noticed that every time the butter would fall down instead of being face up, so we did an experiment about that. I also really like my other second-grade teacher, Ms. Randolph. She taught us about Ancient China and Egypt that I really liked. I also really liked the Native Americans that we learned about. I actually brought my Native American doll in for my presentation. So, I thought it was cool that we got to do some science experiments and have kind of twist in projects with everything. I really liked that. 

What are you really excited about this year in third grade?

I’m really excited that we’re going to be learning about more ancient places like Ancient Greece and Rome and some place in Africa, Mali. I’m excited to learn about that. I’m also excited that we’re going to learn more about writing letters to each other because I really liked that last year. One time even, we were writing letters back and forth to each other in my class, and we ran out of letter paper. We asked for more but she said, “No, you guys are going to take up all the other class’s paper.”

What do you like to do when you’re not in school?

One of my friends in class, we play soccer together, so I really like soccer. I also really like to craft at home and play. I like to hula hoop a lot and I’m really good at hula hooping. Last year we did a contest to see who could hula hoop the longest of the boys and girls. There were like 10 girls left and we had to start walking the basketball court for that. That’s how good the girls were and I won for one of those. I really like running sometimes, too. That’s pretty much it.

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This is my 25^th year with the school system. I really love the children. I love being around the kids. I like to make them feel happy when they are here. This is the best time of their lives. It’s my job to make sure this is a place to be remembered.

My philosophy is if you show them that you love them and you show them that you care, they will want to come here and learn because they feel comfortable. They know they’re loved here. I’ve got so many experiences from kids that have gone through here, who are now grown, who still come back and see me. It’s so rewarding for me. I want to make a difference in their lives. I want to be a role model.

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My favorite subject in school is science. Definitely! I like learning about the solar system. The solar system is just an interesting place to me because we don’t know if there is life out there, and, if there is life, maybe one day I could become an astronaut and go meet that life.

What would you say or do?

I would try and, if it was some sort of allergy or something, I would bring it back to earth so we could examine it.

Have you always been interested in the solar system?

Yeah. My dad, he really, really likes space. He gets Discovery magazine every week. He’s just been really, really into it. He watches Cosmos.

So, you want to be an astronaut when you grow up.

Well, I want to be a marine biologist because I like studying things and I like learning about new things. So, I think if I could find a new life that lives in the sea, I would get to learn about it and teach others about it and I would just love to do that.

You could study the stars and the sea.

It’s kind of far to go to the stars, and I don’t really want to be away from my family that much.

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I love books! They are my friends.

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I’m very excited for eighth grade because it’s my last year of middle school and you can always strive for improvement, so that’s what I’m going to do and make it my best year.

What do you think will make it your best year?

I don’t know exactly. I’m just always striving to be better and using the Habits of Mind that I learned in first grade. I keep using those each year to improve.

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Virginia Beach was a pioneer in teaching language to young children. I believe that children at this age can learn like natives. You speak it. They repeat it. They learn it and that’s it! It’s very simple.

They’re first-graders and they know nothing because the majority of the students have never been exposed to the language. This week, even though it was the first week, I decided I just need to speak and they need to figure it out. I do enough motions. I show them pictures. I act it out. All those are cues and, in their brains, they feel the need and they want to understand the teacher. I bank on that. For example, we played a game where they have to guess the number. They have no clue what I’m saying but they saw the numbers, and I pointed and I made gestures. Within five minutes they knew the game. I didn’t have to speak in English.

What do you like about teaching in the immersion program?

First of all, I truly believe that is my gift. When I’m here, I smile, I don’t need to fake anything. I enjoy being here. I like the children and I truly believe in the program. I wish every single school could have it. In that regard, there is no effort. I love what I do. The load is big but I love what I do. I’ve taught from little ones to high school. I just love children. If you get into their brains, understand their stage of development and understand how they think, you can put yourself at their level and teach them anything.

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I’m very excited and looking forward to a wonderful year. I’m so happy to here at Linkhorn. As a new teacher, it’s a learning process and reflecting on everything every single day.

What have you learned so far after one week?

You need to be flexible, especially in the first week. You don’t know your students yet, so some things you think might work…you really don’t know them. I have a morning class and an afternoon class, and they are completely different. At the beginning of the week I had the same things for each class, but I can’t because they are totally different.

What drew you teaching?

I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I remember I moved in first grade and I was so shy. I was the child who did not talk. I was so shy moving to a new school and my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Kalp, made me feel so comfortable. And that, well, I will just remember her forever. I want to be a teacher like that for my students.

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What do you like about working in the school garden?

I like to mulch. It’s fun picking up the mulch.

What else do you like to do?

Play video games! And play with my dad.

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I’m really excited for eighth grade. I want to go to Tallwood, which has the Global Studies and World Languages Academy, because I want to study abroad. That’s always something I’ve wanted to do — like, go to Australia and Istanbul and everywhere! We do capstone, which is a mini senior project for eighth-graders, and I feel like that will mold me in a way so that I can study abroad. I think I want my capstone to focus on travel or kids who live in different countries and how I can help them.

It sounds like you’re excited about eighth grade because you really want to get to high school and travel.

Yes! I’ve been to Togo in Africa. My parents are from there. It feels very homey. I know a lot of the people there, but there’s kind of a language difference. That’s why I took French because they speak French there. I really like it over there.

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