After 34 years of explaining the difference between food webs and food chains and answering questions about the environment, Mrs. Sheryl Ursillo is saying goodbye to her position as a science teacher at Haven.
Ursillo taught Environmental Science throughout her time at Haven. Before teaching, she worked as a field biologist for an engineering company and did pre-assessments of living things found in a specific area. Her previous job is what sparked her interest in teaching environmental science.
“I found myself teaching adults and realizing that that particular generation at the time did not have a lot of knowledge on current situations with the environment,” Ursillo said. “So I ended up finding myself talking to people that were quite older than me, and trying to convince them of what the truths are versus their opinion of the environment, so there’s a lot of teaching involved [in that].”
Ursillo strived to make her classroom a place where students can have a personalized learning experience based on their needs. She also hoped to make her students more aware of their impact on the environment.
“The other part of the lessons being learned is just to have students become more aware that it’s not just their specific environment that surrounds them, and that their actions are going to be compounding,” Ursillo said. “And then hopefully by their senior year they can take away the knowledge of saying, you know, how [we] could possibly find solutions to all of the problems that we have.”
Upon reflecting, Ursillo has seen herself change from a grades-focused teacher to a teacher that focuses more on whether or not her students are understanding the content they learn.
“I think I have changed from ‘88% you’re getting a B+, no question about it,’” Ursillo said. “[But now,] I’m like, ‘all right, you have a B+, let’s see what we can do. Why aren’t you getting an A?’”
One thing she enjoyed about teaching at Haven was the freedom she had to teach the core curriculum in her own way. Ursillo especially likes that she had the opportunity to choose how to present the curriculum to her students, which made it easy for her to make the curriculum adaptable to everyone.
“[The school district] allows some leniency when it comes to choosing how we want to present [the curriculum] to the students, which is nice,” Ursillo said. “Not every school is like that.”
In addition to missing explaining how the environment works every day, Ursillo is going to miss the close bonds she has made with other teachers throughout her time at Haven. She is grateful to have had people who understand her situation, and to be able to get opinions and advice from them.
“That’s going to be sad [to leave], but I always say to people, if you look at your phone, then the people that are in your phone are the people you contact the most,” she said. “I have my whole entire department, so those people are in my phone, and I know I can count on all of them, which is a really nice place to be.”
Freshman Jolin Chen had Mrs. Ursillo as her teacher when she took Environmental Science and appreciates Ursillo’s academically focused mindset. Chen believes she learned a lot in her class.
“It’s just the energy that she brings,” Chen said. “Even though her class might be a little bit challenging since it’s just work on top of work if you don’t finish, I feel she’s really passionate about teaching, and that’s like something that’s hard to find with a teacher.”
Ursillo is looking forward to not having to wake up early anymore after her retirement. However, she will be back to continue substitute teaching at Haven next year.
“My new verbiage is that I’m retiring from teaching, but I’m too young, in my opinion, to retire from working,” Ursillo said.
She hopes that any future teacher who fills her position will enjoy what they are teaching, and let that be expressed in the way they teach. Ursillo hopes they will also be active and involved with their students.
“I would tell the teacher to realize that when you’re fatigued at the end of the day, it shouldn’t be because of mental stress, it should be because you were physically involved with your class, and you’re fatigued because you put all of your energy into it,” Ursillo said.’
