When a teacher is excited about a subject, students can tell. Not only do they respond positively, they too, get excited. “We are very lucky to have a teacher like Mr. Ambrose. He makes us passionate about science,” said one student about Montclair’s 2014 Teacher of the Year, Montclair High School’s special education science teacher Owen Ambrose. “I never actually liked biology but on the first day of school, Mr. Ambrose taught me in a way that made me happy and want to learn about biology a lot more,” said another. It’s that passion for science – and his students – that earns him the district’s top honor.
“It’s very exciting,” said Ambrose, who has taught in Montclair for eight years. “But the really cool thing was you have to write a series of essays to apply for the district Teacher of the Year award. It was a great opportunity for growth. As I was writing the essays, it opened my eyes and reminded me of why I began teaching.”
Ambrose isn’t one of those teachers who always knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. In fact, he began his college career as a graphic design student and earned his Associates Degree in Marketing Art and Design from Middlesex County College. But he quickly realized that the field was not for him. “There was a moment when I was working at summer camp. I was 20 years old and had graduated from college,” he recalled. “There was a kid in one of my groups with learning/social disabilities. I didn’t do anything special, but a teacher saw how I was interacting with him and she said ‘This is something you need to go to school for.’” Two months later he enrolled and earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Kean University.
The rest, as they say, is history. But there is more to Ambrose’s past that makes him especially connected with his students. As a child, he struggled in school and was eventually assessed for special education programming and later classified for a brief period of time. Back then, children were removed from classrooms and those early experiences have shaped him in his career. “When I became a teacher, I saw my role as someone who would change that.”
He seems to be doing just that. Students in his class respond not just to his enthusiastic teaching methods, but to his dedication, and with much success.
“I try to instill in them that a learning disability is something you can overcome. First and foremost, I’m a child advocate. I’m in the corner of any student facing a struggle,” he said. “They can see someone who is backing them up, someone who has their best interest in mind. My experiences helped bring me to a point where I can stand up for students and they recognize that.”
They also recognize how much Ambrose enjoys the subject he teaches. His enthusiasm is obvious from the moment that students step into the classroom on the first day of school when he tells them, “This is not going to be a normal class. This is going to be something you’ve never seen before.”
Things they’ve never seen before could be anything from video footage of Ambrose exploring caves throughout New Jersey to artifacts – even animal skulls! “I’m abnormally interested in science and nature. I spend every free moment I can outdoors, exploring the state,” he said.
“Because of that personal interest in the content area, it makes me enthusiastic about teaching the material. I don’t leave the lesson up to the book. In almost every lesson I’m using props. I teach like a storyteller. I tell them stories and show them examples so it’s more tangible, more entertaining. They go from just hearing about something to seeing it for themselves. By the end of the year they feel like they’ve had a genuine experience.”
It’s not just the students who get an “aha” moment during the year. Sometimes Ambrose himself is overcome when he realizes he’s made a breakthrough in the classroom. “It could be as simple as making that connection in front of the whole class. Or it can be individualized,” he explained. “I had a student in my class and I knew when the light bulb went off over his head. He answered a question and I thought, ‘Yes! That was brilliant!’ Then pointing out a moment like that to the student is just as important to encourage him. When it happens, it’s almost embarrassing for me. It’s like I experience that with them and almost fumble over my words.”
Ambrose himself is on a path to discovery. He is one of only 20 K-12 science teachers from five school districts who were chosen to participate in the Wipro Science Education Fellowship (SEF) program at Montclair State University. The Wipro SEF program is a two-year teacher-leadership program that uses a model of teacher support and development to increase the quality of teaching and leadership in science. The model includes a comprehensive set of activities designed to improve teacher practice, focusing on the outcome of increased achievement in science for all students. Already, Ambrose has worked on district-level curriculum projects, sharing his knowledge and experience with colleagues.
Beyond his own passion for continued learning and his true love of science, if there is one lesson he wants to give his students, it is one of accountability, especially for those who “find it less difficult to accept the low standards that they feel society has set for them than to aspire beyond those standards,” he explained. His intent is “to bring to each student I come into contact with to a point where they are compensating for their learning difficulties and regarding academic success not only as a matter of personal responsibility, but also a matter of great possibility.
“At the end of the year, I hope they can leave understanding more about biology in a literal way, but if they can learn to live more, that’s my real goal,” he continued. “It’s what I’m here to do. It’s my ‘secret mission’.”
It’s not-so-secret anymore.
The district congratulates the following individual school Teachers of the Year:
Kristen Freeh Bradford School
Sirena Richardson Bradford School
Beverly D’Andrea The Charles H. Bullock School
Corrine Haggerty Edgemont School
Elaine Rose Glenfield School
Judith Towery Hillside School
Pamela Harriott Mount Hebron School
Eric Eder Nishuane School
Shawn Dey Northeast School
Joyce Korotkin Renaissance School
Christen Berman-Schiralli Watchung School
