Master Teachers program<\/a> is a professional organization that brings together STEM teachers from across the state.<\/p>\nPetras started with Manhasset in 2010 and comes from a long line of teachers. Three of her grandparents and both of her parents are teachers. Two of her daughters are now teachers as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, it just runs in my family,\u201d Petras said.<\/p>\n
But not everyone in the family has followed the same subject matter. Petras was taught AP European History by her father. \u201cHe was one of those teachers that everyone loved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But Petras was more drawn to math. \u201cI like math because it\u2019s got an answer,\u201d Petras said. \u201cIt\u2019s got a process.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derek Jones and Robert Krakehl are two other Manhasset teachers who are members of the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jones, another math teacher, started with Manhasset in 2012. Jones said math always came easily to him, so he sought to find more difficult problems as he went on to college.<\/p>\n
He also had family in education: his aunt was a principal. And Jones also pointed to his ninth-grade biology teacher, Mr. Dipaulo, as a mentor.<\/p>\n
Dipaulo\u2019s biology class was \u201cone of those classes you don\u2019t forget about.\u201d Jones said, \u201cAt the time I probably didn\u2019t realize it, being in ninth grade,\u201d but he was an inspiration. Jones still keeps in touch with his old teacher.<\/p>\n
Krakehl planned to go into electrical engineering, but he changed professions because he wanted to work with people.<\/p>\n
When he realized that teaching was for him, his first thought was to be a math teacher until one of his friends convinced him otherwise, saying, \u201cWhy do math when you can do physics? Which is just math with explosions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krakehl was convinced and started with Manhasset in 2017.<\/p>\n
Krakehl\u2019s physics teacher, Keith Lundquist, was in the first cohort of the Master Teachers program, and Krakehl followed his mentor\u2019s lead just three years ago.<\/p>\n
Last year Krakehl helped host a robotics competition for teachers from across the state and Jones ended up winning.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to put on events like that that push ourselves and other teachers in ways that think outside the box for STEM is a huge highlight for the program,\u201d Krakehl said.<\/p>\n
The program is mainly for mid-career teachers, but applicants must have at least four years of teaching experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To apply, one must take an exam in their subject, undergo an interview, submit three letters of recommendation, and provide any other supplementary materials to demonstrate their commitment to teaching.<\/p>\n
The program requires teachers to complete 50 hours of professional interaction, which can be achieved in a variety of ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are cohorts of Long Island teachers, professional learning teams, and opportunities to learn new content.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Opportunities beckon to go to labs, environmental sites, and conferences, while other teachers help build question banks and lesson tasks for teachers to use<\/p>\n
Some teachers focus on vertical alignment or making sure that what\u2019s taught in elementary carries to middle and high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really a wide spread, but it all boils down to basically improving us in terms of our professional abilities,\u201d Krakehl said.<\/p>\n
Petras, Jones, and Krakehl each spoke on how rewarding teaching is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Petras said the application process was also powerful in that it forced her to reflect on her whole career thus far.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m definitely more towards the end of my career than at the beginning of my career,\u201d Petras said. \u201cBut I still want to grow as a teacher and learn more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Math teacher Laura Petras was selected as the third member of the New York State Master Teachers program…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[8424,47853,9,24,47854,63,122,124,123,32351,5181],"class_list":["post-105387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-manhasset","tag-manhasset-public-schools","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state-master-teachers-program","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-stem","tag-teachers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}