The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Smaldone named school district’s Teacher of the Year
BURLINGTON » “I have the best job. This is the only job I’ve ever wanted to have.”
Those are the first words Region 10’s Teacher of the Year Patti Smaldone spoke, as she discussed receiving the honor.
“Even when I was young, I wanted to work with kids,” she said. “I was a counselor, a swim instructor, I babysat. I was honing my classroom management skills at a young age, preparing me for what I would later become.” A proud product of Region 10 Schools, Smaldone began her career at Parkville Community School in Hartford as a bilingual teacher, teaching half of the day in English and half of the day in Spanish.
“I learned a lot there and it was wonderful, but I was young and didn’t know enough about life to be in the city,” she said.
This thought process led Smaldone overseas where she taught at the American School of Quito in Ecuador and studied spanish culture in Valencia, Spain. “It was a phenomenal experience. I honed my skills as a professional with the language immersion.”
Smaldone said she also learned to be independent.
“Growing up in a small town there was always someone to guide me,” she said. “That gives you a great level of confidence, but over a period of time it can be crippling. I needed to learn how to be self-sufficient.”
When she came home from Ecuador, Smaldone heard about the Foreign Language in the Elementary School (FLES) program in Region 10. Smaldone took courses for FLES, receiving her certification, and in 1995 landed a job “teaching the subject matter that I love” at Lewis Mills and Lake Garda.
In 2002, Smaldone married her husband Mark, and with his two children lived on the north shore of Boston. However, Connecticut was never far from her mind.
“I told my husband as soon as the kids were finished with school that we were moving back,” she said.
After returning in 2010, Smaldone found a position teaching Spanish at Litchfield Middle School.
“I liked it there, but kids and families tend to tether you to a place and I knew I wanted to come back,” she said.
She and Mark bought her grandmother’s house on Main Street in Burlington, which has been in the family for generations, and she began looking for work in Region 10. In December of 2012, Smaldone learned of a maternity leave in Pre-K at Lake Garda and got the job that would bring her back to the district. In 2016 she became the Spanish teacher for both Lake Garda Elementary and Harwinton Consolidated School.
“Changing around (grade levels) has given me a perspective of the whole trajectory of learning,” Smaldone said. “It has served me well and serves the kids well in making teaching decisions. I can back up and see what kids need because I have literally taught every grade level in my career except Kindergarten.”
In addition to her K-12 classroom experience, Smaldone has worked as an adjunct professor at Tunxis Community College and Central Connecticut State University teaching Spanish.
“The (foreign language) program is really good for kids in providing exposure to a different cultural perspective,” Smaldone said. “I am providing them the opportunity to hear and the opportunity to use the language. I love when my students arrive and say, ‘I get to learn Spanish!’ Half of my job is done because they think like that.”
“What I find unique about my class is that the students see their classmates in a different way,” she said. Kids in this class are forced to listen differently and some pick up the language more easily. Those same students may have difficulties with another subject, but they find that this is their place. That is how I was as a kid. I liked it, I did well and I learned something in a new and different way. Spanish class was my place to shine.”