WELCOME BACK, CHARLENE: Alum has come full circle

Many adults enjoy making return visits to the schools they attended as children, but Charlene Boll Antalek is spending a little longer at Holy Spirit School in East Greenbush.

"It's wonderful to be teaching in the same school that holds so many wonderful memories of my youth," said Mrs. Antalek, who began teaching fourth grade at Holy Spirit in September.

She insists she knew she wanted to be a teacher from the time she was a Kindergartener.

"My mother had a home office where I used to photocopy worksheets to hand out to my dolls and teddy bears when I played school with them. I also enjoyed helping my teachers all through school; I knew one day I'd be a teacher, too," she explained.

However, she never suspected she would one day serve on the faculty alongside some of her favorite teachers or that her now-retired principal, Sister Maureen Moffitt, CSJ, would serve as her mentor.

"I remained in contact with Sister Maureen after I graduated from Holy Spirit," noted Mrs. Antalek, who later attended (now-closed) St. Mary's School in Clinton Heights, Ichabod Crane High in Kinderhook and The College of Saint Rose in Albany.

She is now pursuing an MBA at Saint Rose and plans to eventually secure her masters of education, as well. Mrs. Antalek has also taught faith formation for three years at St. John the Baptist parish in Valatie, where she is now the object of some good-natured teasing about her "tenure year."

All in the family
It was through The College of Saint Rose that Mrs. Antalek first had an opportunity to return to Holy Spirit as part of a student teaching field experience.

Already, she wasn't the only member of her family to head back: Mrs. Antalek's siblings had also attended Holy Spirit and her mother had worked there as a teacher's aide after Mrs. Antalek graduated from the school.

Recommended for placement by Sister Maureen, Mrs. Antalek enjoyed interacting with students in Holy Spirit's elementary and middle school grades. She subsequently applied for a teaching position there, but had to wait until this academic year for an opening.

In addition to getting the job, she was delighted when her former fourth-grade teacher, Eileen Collins, offered her a special gift.

"Mrs. Collins taught at Holy Spirit until just a couple of years ago, and it meant a great deal to me when she offered to pass her teaching tools along to me," reflected Mrs. Antalek. "One of the things she gave me was a huge plastic 'haunted pumpkin patch bubble' that my fourth-grade classmates and I used crawl into to share our favorite spooky stories.

Traditional
"Just before Halloween this year, I set the haunted pumpkin patch up in my classroom and had my students do the same thing." Another tradition Mrs. Antalek is preserving is that of reading "The Other Side of the Mountain." She inherited 25 copies of the classic book for her students.

She added that "language arts was definitely my favorite subject as a fourth-grade student, and it's still my favorite subject as a fourth-grade teacher."

Mrs. Antalek is also eager to introduce some new traditions. A firm believer in the adage that "the whole world is your classroom," the she recently took her students to a Native American enrichment program at Brookside Museum in Ballston Spa. She hopes to arrange more such excursions in the future.

Back at the school, she has settled in with some familiar faces: Custodian Paul Wiedman recently celebrated his 40th anniversary at Holy Spirit; Mrs. Antalek's former art teacher, Pat Cahill, is still a member of the faculty, as are teachers Mary Ann McConnell and Diane Williams. Librarian Monica Parmenter is a former Holy Spirit teacher.

Principal Roger Rooney noted that "one of the highest compliments an educator can receive is when a student comes back and wants to talk and remain connected. When a student returns to teach, it is all the more meaningful, because their love of the school and its lifelong importance to them becomes clear to their students."

(11-12-09)