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2008: Independent Elementary School Teachers of the Year

Tag-Team Teaching
Two educators + two languages = exponential learning

Aline Linden and Lorie Quint each found her way to teaching by following a circuitous path.

Linden was studying French literature at the University of Chicago. She had never seriously considered teaching because, as she explained, her mother was a teacher and she knew how hard it was. Yet she always liked explaining and clarifying things, a gift others noticed, and eventually she couldn't imagine spending all her time “doing research and writing papers that only two people would read.”

Quint was a designer living in Italy who taught English on the side.

“I grew to enjoy teaching much more” than designing, she said.

She first had a job boosting the English skills of employees at professional companies, then she landed another as an English teacher at the University of Venice. Later, she taught teenagers at the experimental Keshet High School in Jerusalem.

Both women eventually made their way to Manhattan to pursue master's degrees in Jewish education. Linden studied at the Drisha Institute and Quint at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Linden has taught at the Solomon Schechter School for five years. This is Quint’s second year at the school. She and Linden co-teach 4th grade.

In addition to non-education and non-New York backgrounds, these two have in common a facility with language. Linden learned to speak Hebrew through the “cumulative effect” of 12 years at a Jewish day school. Quint lived in Israel during her kindergarten year and was immersed in the language. The ability to speak Hebrew and English, and the two women’s combined experience outside education, seems to serve them well in their current positions.

“Aline and Lorie seamlessly teach a dual language (Hebrew and English) curriculum and in the process, light up more student neurons than you might have thought possible,” said 4th grade parent Matt Butcher. “In order to do this they’ve both had to light up their own neurons in a big way. This means they’ve had to develop a pedagogical mastery of math, writing and social studies and an equal mastery of Hebrew language, Torah and religious instruction.”

Linden reaches kids with humor, to show them that learning “doesn’t have to be boring.” She also works to find the right balance between informality and structure. She’s delighted when new, creative ideas emerge, citing one time this year when her students surprised her with an innovative twist on an eco-tour assignment centered on the rainforest. The students giving presentations begged her to allow volunteers to come up to point things out, such as “the hind feet on the body of the sugar glider.” This innovation turned out to be a highlight of the event.

“It was clever and more interactive,” Linden said, “something no one had thought of before.”
Having spent most of her life in the arts, Quint enjoys the opportunity to fuse that discipline with biblical studies at Solomon Schechter. She encourages dialogue and interpretation about stories from the Bible (for example, Moses and the burning bush) using biblical art. She finds this helps children interpret the story in a way “that comes more naturally,” especially for those who have difficulty interpreting texts in the more conventional way.

Matt Butcher has been impressed with the results he has seen in his son’s 4th grade class.
“Having teachers who can so ably deliver on every aspect of a dual language curriculum—and make it both engaging and effective—is a rarity,” he said.

— Lydie Raschka