Catherine Iaccarino was a special education resource room and inclusion teacher in grammar and middle schools for over thirty years, and continues to teach summers at the Center for Coastal Ecology. Teaching special education in an urban setting along with continuing to prepare and present unique programs for the regular classroom, tutoring for mastery testing, and substituting has enlightened her to more effective methods not necessarily explained in textbooks. These personally developed insights combined with her intuitive, witty approach, make for a useful compilation of ways to pique a child’s curiosity, effectively reach his or her desire to learn, and actually enjoy the process. She has appeared on locally televised “Classroom Connections” and presented lectures and workshops at schools and universities here, as well as in China. She currently lives in Connecticut.
In the beginning…..
I
Years ago I had gone to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and at every turn I was asked the same question over and over, “What’s your fantasy?” Absolutely not going there, but it did remind me of another question that comes up over and over “What do you want to be when you grow up?” What was your childhood fantasy of what you would be doing as an adult? Well, mine was to be a dancer in a chorus line on Broadway.
Every Christmas season my folks would pack us up and head off for a day in NYC. There was the tree to see, the shop windows, getting pushed through the crowds with views of waistbands and ribcages and the best, RadioCityMusic Hall and the Rockettes. That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to be in that line.
Due to being left eyed, right handed and left footed the only thing I am uniquely qualified to do in the art of movement is tripping over smoke. I am a klutz. I did, however, many years later go to a revival of the play Hair on Broadway. At the end of the play the audience was invited to go on stage and sing and dance along with the cast. I bolted up there and sang and danced along, counting this “Age of Aquarius” as my bucket list check off. I did it! I danced in a chorus line on Broadway! Sometimes even without that boat life really is but a dream.
What was your first plan? Did you get to follow it?
I did get to fill in some other spaces in life like:
Taught Special Education Resource Room and Inclusion for 33 years in West Haven Ct.
Teaching workshops at college level and for teachers on various teaching styles and techniques.
Guest lecturer at Yang Sang University, China.
Wrote and produced fifth grade production and DVD of “A Little Touch of Shakespeare
Give school program on “Native American Culture and the Environment.”
Teach summers at the West HavenCenter for Coastal Ecology https://www.facebook.com/groups/115041935251896/
Summer Suncatchers Enrichment Program, Guilford. http://www.suncatchersllc.com/?page_id=80
Teaching presentation on “Classroom Connections” BCTV with Jan Doyle.
That being said, here’s what I did in-between my “real” jobs.
- Striped tennis courts (and I don’t even play).
- Waitress
- sold Real Estate
- In house writer for off/off/off Broadway theater
- Co-wrote musical play which was produced in New York City, out side of ChicagoIl and New Haven Ct.
- Catalog and pack up artifacts for the Peabody Museum
- Ran a local archeological dig site mostly for kids.
- It’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it, or don’t know how to say ‘no’ or just need money