Reading Teacher

Sarah Jeannette Raphel Tressler, a retired Baltimore County reading teacher, died of cancer Nov. 16 at the Presbyterian Home of Maryland. She was 87 and lived in Parkville and Ocean City. Born Sarah Jeannette Raphel in Cumberland, she earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Towson University and a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University. She began teaching in 1963 at the Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Baynesville. She later joined the Baltimore County school system and taught at Back River and McCormick elementary schools and at Pine Grove Middle School.

Sarah Jeannette Raphel Tressler, a retired Baltimore County reading teacher, died of cancer Nov. 16 at the Presbyterian Home of Maryland. She was 87 and lived in Parkville and Ocean City. Born Sarah Jeannette Raphel in Cumberland, she earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Towson University and a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University. She began teaching in 1963 at the Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Baynesville. She later joined the Baltimore County school system and taught at Back River and McCormick elementary schools and at Pine Grove Middle School.

For years, Ellicott City resident Cathy Bond had been a reading teacher at RICA-Baltimore, a regional facility for troubled youngsters. So when she received an invitation from People to People International asking her to participate in the Reading Educators Delegation to China, she enthusiastically agreed, knowing that this chance might not soon return.Ms. Bond plans to leave the country on Oct. 18, and return on Nov. 2. During her two-week stay, Ms. Bond will combine professional growth with a tour of China's sites, spending time in the cities of Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai.

Donald Byrd Marston Sr., an English and reading teacher who was once a top-ranked table tennis player, died of pneumonia Jan. 9 at Sinai Hospital after an extended illness. He was 79 and had lived in Sykesville. He taught for more than 30 years at the old Brooklyn Park Junior/Senior High School in Baltimore. He was stern in the classroom, said his daughter, Barbara Fost of Catonsville, but was also funny and passionate about his work. Mr. Marston, who was born in California, earned a bachelor's degree from the Johns Hopkins University and a master's degree in education from the University of Maryland.

Board recognizes staff achievementsThe Carroll County School Board is recognizing these staff members for their achievements:* Linda Danmyer, secretary in Curriculum Division: for receiving a certificate of appreciation from Gov. William Donald Schaefer for her work on Total Quality Management conferences last fall.* William Hill, machine technology instructor at the Career and Technology Center: for receiving the award of excellence from the Greater Baltimore Committee and Regional Technology Council for efforts in developing student awareness of manufacturing careers.

The Sun has assembled a panel of experts to address parents' concerns about reading -- from a psychologist and a pediatrician to an ophthalmologist and a reading teacher. We'll also ask other parents what's worked for them.Your questions and the responses of our experts will appear in our special "Reading by 9" pages on Sundays and Wednesdays, beginning soon in the Today section of The Sun.Address your concerns to: Ask the Experts, Reading by 9, Features Dept., The Sun, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, Md. 21278Pub Date: 1/13/98

One of the most worrisome things for parents are signs their child is having difficulty learning to read, because they know reading is the key to the child's education.The Sun has assembled a panel of experts to address your concerns about reading and your child -- from a psychologist and a pediatrician to an ophthalmologist and a reading teacher. We also will ask other parents what has worked for them.Your questions and the responses of our experts will appear in our special "Reading by 9" pages on Sundays and Wednesdays, beginning soon in the Today section of The Sun.L If you have a question, send it in and we'll get the answer.

One of the most worrisome things for parents are signs their child is having difficulty learning to read, because they know reading is the key to an education.The Sun has assembled a panel of experts to address your concerns about reading and your child -- from a psychologist and a pediatrician to an ophthalmologist and a reading teacher. We also will ask other parents what has worked for them.Your questions and the responses of our experts will appear in our special "Reading by 9" pages on Sundays and Wednesdays, beginning soon in the Today section of The Sun. If you have a question, send it in and we'll get the answer.

Area schools, libraries and literacy programs seek volunteers to help children or adults improve reading skills. Among them are: Thomas Johnson Elementary School, 100 E. Heath St., in South Baltimore, to work with children on reading difficulties during the school day beginning in September. Training will be provided, and hours for tutoring arranged between 7: 45 a.m. and 3 p.m. Information: Maria Zozuliak, reading teacher, 410-396-1575.Baltimore Reading Aides, 6200 Loch Raven Blvd., for one-on-one tutoring of adults learning to read or trying to improve reading skills.

Donald Byrd Marston Sr., an English and reading teacher who was once a top-ranked table tennis player, died of pneumonia Jan. 9 at Sinai Hospital after an extended illness. He was 79 and had lived in Sykesville. He taught for more than 30 years at the old Brooklyn Park Junior/Senior High School in Baltimore. He was stern in the classroom, said his daughter, Barbara Fost of Catonsville, but was also funny and passionate about his work. Mr. Marston, who was born in California, earned a bachelor's degree from the Johns Hopkins University and a master's degree in education from the University of Maryland.

THE ANNUAL meeting of Maryland's reading teachers is a good place to judge the mood of the moment. Each March, several hundred teachers from all over the state gather at Hunt Valley. Many are specialists who spend their working days on reading, but others are traditional elementary instructors who cover the waterfront, from reading to science, social studies and math. This year they are mighty peeved. Two years ago - the last convention I attended - the teachers had just said sayonara to the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program.

THE NATION'S reading teachers feel put upon. President Bush wants - and both houses of Congress have approved - annual testing in reading of every child in grades three through eight. Some states are testing veteran classroom teachers. Maryland demands that elementary teachers take four college courses in reading. Other states are following suit. Worse, the teachers are being ordered to teach phonics. Resentment over all of this is easy to discern at the Baltimore Convention Center and downtown hotels, as 6,000 members of the National Council of Teachers of English gather for their 91st convention.

It was a failed lesson on Leap Year Day that made a reading teacher of Alison Howell. She was Alison Harkins then, a 23-year-old senior at Towson University planning a wedding and a career in teaching. That Feb. 29, 2000, Howell taught her first lesson solo at Jessup Elementary School. Twenty second-graders and two unsmiling adults looked on. Howell had been up all night fretting over her lesson plan, and she was nervous. It had been a long journey to this ground-floor classroom in Anne Arundel County.

MORE THAN 150 sixth-graders from Northwest Middle School spent a hot day last week pulling weeds and picking up trash at two Taneytown parks as part of an environmental project for school. "This evolved in a funny way," said Emily Kissner, a language arts and reading teacher who proposed the idea. Kissner said she and fellow reading teacher Gayle Sands looked at how they could involve the community in their reading projects. Sands conducted a service project in which her pupils collected clothes for Baltimore foster children.

In an effort to beef up the good things going on inside Anne Arundel County's classrooms, Superintendent Carol S. Parham proposed yesterday a $593 million spending plan that includes money for middle school reading teachers, innovative special education programs and a salary increase for all employees. Parham is asking for 10 percent more - an additional $54.7 million - than the schools received last year. She presented to school board members last night her recommended budget for fiscal 2001-2002, which also contains money to continue systemwide computer upgrades, to improve substandard school libraries and to add 116 teaching positions to keep pace with enrollment, shrink the size of classes in first and second grade, accommodate more students who come from overseas and expand an alternative school.

Area schools and literacy programs seek volunteers to help children and adults improve reading skills and to assist with related projects. Among them are: Franklin Square Hospital Center, 9000 Franklin Square Drive, Rosedale/White Marsh, seeks volunteers to read to children in the Family Health Center Waiting Room. Volunteers are needed for as little as one hour a week, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays as part of the Reach Out and Read Program. Contact: Ann Heil, 443- 777-7240.

On parents' night at Tyler Heights Elementary School in Annapolis, teacher Marveen Griffin couldn't quite get the group's attention. Her first-graders were too excited about showing their mothers and fathers the books they've read, the poems hanging on the walls, the magnetic boards where they work on their spelling. "Usually, they just come and they sit, but that night they were all over the room," Griffin recalled. It has been like that since the start of school. It seems no one can visit without being read stories by proud new readers learning under a new federally funded program.