12.07.2015 Views

Winter 2011 - K-Space Web Page - Central Catholic High School

Winter 2011 - K-Space Web Page - Central Catholic High School

Winter 2011 - K-Space Web Page - Central Catholic High School

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS
  • No tags were found...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

6 Student Life | <strong>Winter</strong> <strong>2011</strong>Meet Our FacultyLaurie Hartford, English DepartmentIn the BeginningA lot of kids don’t know what they wantto be when they grow up. For that matter,a lot of grown ups don’t know what theywant to be when they grow up. But <strong>Central</strong><strong>Catholic</strong> English teacher Laurie Hartford isdefinitely not one of those people. She haswanted to be a teacher for as long as she canremember. “When I was in kindergarten, Iused to do my work and then get out of myseat and help everybody else do their work,”she recalls. “My teacher pointed it out tomy parents and told them I was going to bea teacher someday.”Laurie was born in Napoleon, Ohio and moved to Defiance atthe age of five. She attended Defiance <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> where shewas student council president and performed with the theaterdepartment. Laurie double majored in education and performingarts at Siena Heights University, and there she met fellow studentsBrenda Waters (CCHS music teacher) and Paula (Ziolkowski)Domitio ’72 (former CCHS technology teacher).When Laurie graduated from college, the president of the universityasked her to stay on and do some teaching while she worked towardher master’s degree. After that, she went on to teach at LumenChristi <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> in Jackson, Michigan, and she also worked inthe theater department and as a counselor. After five years, shedecided she wanted to be closer to home and she heard about a jobopening at <strong>Central</strong> <strong>Catholic</strong>.At the time of Laurie’s CCHS interview, the school was holding anassembly for the spring musical, and Laurie really enjoyed the wholeatmosphere. So she was thrilled when she got the job as assistant tothe academic principal and guidance counselor. She was in chargeof standardized testing and the open house and recruitment process,starting in the fall of 1984.After two years in that position, Laurie resigned and planned tomove to California with a friend. However, in California she couldonly get on a standby list to be a substitute teacher because her Ohioteaching certification was not enough to allow her to teach there fulltime. She could not afford to stay in California in that situation,so she returned to Toledo. Although her old position at CCHS hadbeen filled, she was able to find a teaching position in the Englishdepartment, which was what she was looking for all along. She alsotook over the theater arts program.Teaching GoalsOver her years at <strong>Central</strong> <strong>Catholic</strong>, Laurie has taught students in allgrades and at all academic levels. “I like all my students to feel asspecial as anyone else,” she says. “I want anyone I teach to feel likethey make a difference in the classroom, and I want to genuinelygive them an opportunity to express who they are as individuals. It’sreally important to me.”One of her college professors used to tell Laurie that the opposite ofgood teaching is NOT teaching, and she says she has tried to followthat her entire life. “It means that you should do what you do, doit as well as you possibly can, or don’t do it,” she explains. “You’renot doing justice to your students, your school, or other facultymembers otherwise.” Laurie says her professor also taught her tohave a short-term goal for each school year, a long-term goal for thenext five years, and a lifetime goal for her career.Her short-term goal always changes, depending on her students, andher five-year goal is a combination of things she wants professionallyand things she wants for her students in terms of their growth overthe years. But Laurie’s lifetime goal has never changed. “I want todevelop in as many students as possible a love of reading, and I tryreally hard to get that across to my students,” she says. “When yousee a movie, it’s great, but you are seeing someone else’s image ofwhat the world is and what these characters are. But when you read,the movie is in your mind. You can create it, you can direct, youcan do sound, music, lights, costumes. You make the movie in yourmind and in your heart. Even if you don’t love what you’re reading,you should respect what you’re reading.”On StageLaurie enjoyed heading the theater arts program at CCHS for 10years, working with the fall play and winter one acts. She alsodirected for the Ohio Theater and worked with Today Productionsand performances at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. For awhile shewas involved in as many as nine shows in a year. In the 1990s,she and Dave Collins ’87 and Scott Thornton ’87 formed TLCProductions, which she describes as theater from the heart. Theidea was to create a theater company for fun and not for profit, to doproductions without egos, and for friends to come together.TLC Productions generally works with legion halls or schoolreunion groups, having people choose the length and theme ofthe production, and then creating a show tailored to their needs.Everyone in the group gets involved in the acting or technicalaspects of the show, and they have fun doing it. TLC Productionshas worked with groups on anything from patriotic shows tohilarious murder mysterious.Years ago when Laurie was working with the Ohio Theater, oneof the families involved in a production asked her if she wouldbe interested in doing television commercial voiceovers. She didtwo commercials, one for Gross Electric and one for Savage &Associates, but she was too busy to pursue anything further whileshe was teaching and doing all of her theater work. She did enjoythe opportunity and says she would love to do more commercials oreven cartoon voiceovers, but she would most likely have to move toNew York, Chicago, or Los Angeles to do so.Shortly after her experience with commercials, she offered to doa voice recording of a book for Charlotte Best’s English classesat CCHS. The book was , and she hoped that ifstudents could hear the book being read rather than simply readingit themselves, they might follow along and understand it better.Last year Laurie did another recording for Charlotte, this time ofthe book Martin Pig. She said this one was even more fun becauseshe incorporated different voices for all the characters, includingCockney accents and voices for characters of different ages andwith different attitudes that were fun to portray. Laurie wanted thestudents to be able to hear a performance that would help them paymore attention and find the book more enjoyable.www.centralcatholic.org

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!