A Full Circle Journey

We featured Ms. Nancy Lazaro in early 2020 when she was just starting out her teaching career at Pilsen Academy. We mentioned in that feature that she was a graduate of Westinghouse College Prep. Her career has come full circle, and she now teaches at Westinghouse. 

When she started at Westinghouse, she primarily taught freshmen. Now, this year, she is teaching sophomores. And, as a math interventionist in addition to being a teacher, she works with some juniors as well. Seeing students grow from year to year is one of her favorite parts of her job. 

She continues to grow as well, and we were so excited to catch up with her to learn more about what being back at Westinghouse has been like. Read more about her experience below.

When you compare your experience at Westinghouse as a student to your experience as a teacher, what is the same, and what is different? 

I was part of the third graduating class, so it was a relatively brand-new building. There have been a lot of changes since then. We are now on a block schedule rather than an eight-period one. We now use a proficiency-based learning (PBL) grading scale rather than traditional grading. And, in my classroom, we do a lot of wipebook work, so there are wipebooks around the entire classroom so students can collaborate and share their thinking with each other. 

The environment here is still very collaborative. When I started, everyone told me that they were going to guide me, and I felt their support right away. Students are still very involved like they used to be, and a lot of teachers sponsor clubs and sports. There are a lot of opportunities for leadership as well. 

What has it been like being an interventionist as well as a teacher? 

It has been really rewarding. I didn’t know what I was doing at first, but I’ve learned how interventions can look different for every student. Sometimes a student might just need a little push, while another student might benefit more from being in a small group. It’s really just about building their skills and letting them know that you believe in them. 

Has working with different grade levels helped you see the “big picture” in terms of teaching math? 

It’s strengthened my own math skills since I’m seeing the full scope and sequence. I’m seeing that you still need the foundational skills that you learn in middle school in high school as well. Everything goes back to those foundations, even when you’re learning something as complex as calculus. My youngest brother is in college, and he was stuck on a math problem. It turns out that he needed to use the distributive property, one of those foundational skills. 

What are your goals for this school year? 

I hope that I can provide stronger interventions for students. I’ve learned that you might not see growth right away, so you have to stay focused. We’re focused on building a strong MTSS team that targets academics, social-emotional learning, attendance, and behavior. We are targeting all of those strands because they go hand in hand. 

What’s your message to the students you are working with this school year? 

When you make a mistake, you learn from it. It’s okay to make these mistakes because you’re going to keep learning, whether it’s in math, another subject, or just in life in general. And remember that math spirals, and you see the same concepts again and again. For example, my juniors are learning trigonometry, and the Pythagorean theorem is involved, which is something they first learned in eighth grade. Everything is connected, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t get something right on the first try.