Eternals

This blog was started back in March 2007 as a way to share my passion and love of teaching. At that time, I was paired with a team teacher, Lauren Rifloff, who shared my beliefs and was a perfect compliment to my abilities. She loved taking the lead when teaching writing, I loved taking the lead with reading instruction. She was/is a fantastic artist, I have trouble with stick figures. Our class study of poetry was magic in her hands because she loved the freedom of poetic expression, my feelings about poetry were lukewarm (although she's sold me on its merits). We read stories from picture books and chapter books seated side-by-side, me voicing and her signing. We shared a love of stories and read to our students several times a day. 

She was always ready and willing to assist me in conducting research for my doctoral courses relating to reading development for children who are D/deaf and hard of hearing, examining American Sign Language, and unpacking best practices. 

The days went by smoothly as we taught our kindergarten and first grade students over the course of nine years. During that time we shared a great deal professionally and personally. I grew to love her like a sister. I'm happy that so many of our experiences in the classroom are documented here in this blog because it was a time of growth, challenge, and joy for me. 

She left to have her first son, but I always held out hope that she would return and we could resume our partnership. However, I guess that's not going to happen now because she's become a superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)! Her sure-to-be blockbuster hit, ETERNALS, is out this week. Lauren plays Makkari, the first Deaf superhero in the MCU. Yep, she's making history!

She is doing a lot of press right now to promote the movie, but embraces her time as an educator in the NYC Public Schools. That is evident in this segment about her on ABC News (see below). Lauren embodies the spirit of, "When one rises, we all rise". 

Now it seems the whole world knows what I've always known - Lauren is SUPER!