By Marcela Berrios, Hannah Storm Journalism Intern
In October, more than 185 people from across the country traveled to Notre Dame to attend the Alumni Association’s “Excellence in Teaching” conference and to celebrate this year’s Outstanding Educator Award winner.
One hundred and thirteen of the attending teachers were sponsored by Notre Dame clubs.
The conference’s keynote speaker was Notre Dame Psychology professor F. Clark Power. Ann Anzalone, a professor at Wright State University with more than 25 years of experience working with K-12 teachers, led a series of workshops that addressed the challenges teachers face in the classroom to deepen their understanding of the craft of teaching and the student learner. She also spoke about ways to meet the diverse needs of each student.
Rob Barteletti ’71, a high school teacher for more than 30 years, earned the Outstanding Educator Award.
“When I was a junior in high school, I realized that teaching would be my life’s vocation,” Barteletti said. “My history teacher took me aside one day and said, ‘Don’t be a lawyer or a doctor. Be a teacher. That’s what your gift is. You’ll never get rich in money, but you will be rich in other ways’.”
And his history teacher was right.
“Teaching has rewarded me in so many ways that are priceless, from the friendships I’ve made, to the lives I’ve been privileged to impact, to the moment when a student has an epiphany, to the thank-you notes from students and parents,” Barteletti said.
In appreciation for Barteletti’s dedicated service to the classroom, his students at Jesuit High School in Portland, Ore., their parents and the rest of the school, set up the Rob Barteletti Endowment for Financial Aid as a retirement present. The gift honors a man who “impacted hundreds in the classroom and thousands with the grace in which he has handled having Parkinson’s disease,” the school’s website said.
Afflicted with the degenerative disease, which impairs his motor skills and speech, Barteletti is learning everything he can from having Parkinson’s. In fact, he has used his experience to found the annual Shaker’s Ball for Parkinson’s research, education and support agencies in his area.
And that spirit of constant learning and growing is something he has tried to share with his students and fellow educators for years.
“My best teachers have been my students, for they have taught me to hope, to be just, to forgive, to be humble, to have faith, and to love unconditionally,” he said. “They have taught me that how I treat them is more important than what I teach them. They have taught me that people learn more from examples than from lectures.”
Click here for more information about the Excellence in Teaching program, or if you belong to a ND club that would like to sponsor a teacher for next year’s conference.
