Mr. Kurz spoke at Christine O’Brien’s Celebration of Life service this past Saturday. The following represents part of his remarks.
Often times, a person who passes away becomes larger than life in death than they were in life. Christine was larger than life – in life. She was a presence. She was a force with which to be reckoned. Christine stood in front of her students everyday and delivered.
Christine was recognized for her outstanding achievement in teaching and professional development:
– Two-time National Board Certified Teacher in the area of mathematics.
– Earned a Lead Professional Educator License from ODE.
– Master Teacher and served as a mentor for her colleagues who are seeking similar certification.
– Greater Cleveland Council of Teachers of Mathematics as one of their Educators-of-the-Year in May.
Each of these awards was proof that Christine had the ability to reflect on her teaching and make improvements for the benefit of her students.
Christine took coursework to increase her content knowledge and expertise in the area of teaching mathematics.
Christine served as a mentor to our new teachers and is RESA certified.
Christine’s professional memberships were as follows:
– GCCTM (Greater Cleveland Council of Teachers of Mathematics)
– NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
– NEOMS (Northeast Ohio Mathematics Specialists).
Christine networked with math teachers from across the Cleveland area, the State of Ohio and the country (White House Summit on STEM) as a way to improve her professional practice.
Christine recently attended professional development trainings in the following areas in evenings and on weekends:
– The Flipped Classroom
– Co-Teaching Strategies
– TI-Nspire Graphing Technology in the Math Classroom
– Strength in Numbers: Building our Collective Mathematical Muscle.
At a recent GCCTM meeting, Christine lead a session on Groupworthy Tasks for her colleagues.
In March, Christine attended a GCCTM-sponsored session on differentiation which led her to develop several new assessment strategies, one of which is a 3-tiered formative assessment technique.
Christine was not only a teacher of students, but she was a teacher of teachers, as well.
Post from a former student, “She had the patience of a saint. She helped even those who didn’t want any part of it – that is to learn and to pass.”
Her legacy will be that she left no student behind. Failure was not an option for her students.
Christine carried herself as a role model for all students, but one can see the positive influence she had on female students: strong, smart, successful, confident, good at math – ok – really, really good at math.
Christine carried herself and dressed very professionally – she wanted the students to respect her for how she presented herself as well as for her teaching ability.
Christine tutored students so she could see why they struggled so she could enhance her lessons for all students. At one point she told me that she had tutored at least one student from every math course at our high school. She said she now had the broader perspective of what students learned in math before her and what math the students would learn after her class. In sports, that’s the equivalent of watching game film and taking notes about tendencies. Christine was a student of the game.
Christine applied to be a NBCT, Master Teacher, and the GCCTM Award more because the process required her to reflect on her teaching for her professional growth. She was like a surgeon – researching best practices and incorporating new procedures and techniques to improve her performance for her students ultimate growth. To Christine, math was a student’s bloodline for success in life. However, it was not just about the math; it was also about attention to detail, work ethic, and collaborative problem-solving. She recently became interested in the work of Tony Wagner who talked about students learning how to work with others to solve problems. Christine was definitely about teaching the whole child.
Whether you are a student, a parent, a colleague or an administrator, Christine becomes/became your friend.
When one thinks about Christine, these themes emerge:
– Her belief in the capacity and ability of others
– Her warm smile
– Her friendship
– Her conviction to help students learn
– Her love of math
The following represents portions of Christine’s letter of recommendation for her most recent award from the Greater Cleveland Council of Teachers of Mathematics Educator-of-the-Year Award:
“Ms, O’Brien is the consummate professional who typifies all that is noble about the teaching profession. Ms. O’Brien is a master teacher in her own right and continually strives to improve the art and craft of teaching for the ultimate benefit of her students and her colleagues. Ms. O’Brien exemplifies the personal and professional qualities and characteristics of the kind of educator who is a model for her profession and for all teachers of mathematics. Ms. O’Brien is very child-centered and works diligently to improve learning conditions for all of her students by giving of her time beyond the school day.”
“Ms. O’Brien represents everything that a master teacher should be. She goes out of her way to welcome new staff members and share her insights about instruction, motivation, and discipline. Ms. O’Brien is a leader on her small grade level team, her department, and at Olmsted Falls Middle School because of her dedication to her students and mastery of mathematics content. She is a mentor and a friend to colleagues and substitute teachers. Most importantly, Ms. O’Brien donates hours of her own time each week to work with students who are struggling in her class. Every morning before school, Ms. O’Brien has a regular group of students who come to her for intervention in mathematics. She welcomes all students to attend these sessions or to work with her on the team’s intervention period so that every one of them feels success in class. Ms. O’Brien is a positive and caring educator who reaches out to every student and guide them to success.”
What a better legacy than to represent an idea based on your ideals of dedication, professionalism, conviction, advocacy for students, passion, love of math, a belief in the ability and capacity of others, and an absolute intolerance of student failure – in spite of themselves.
While the loss of Christine, the person, is heartbreaking and represents a loss with which we may never recover, the deeper and possibly more profound loss is the loss of the idea of Christine. Her legacy will live for a generation and beyond at OFMS.
I know I speak for the Olmsted communities, we are truly heartbroken – the pain is real. We all loved Christine very much. I promise you her legacy will live on and we will never forget her.
Rest easy our friend, Christine. You will be in our hearts forever.
Larger than life – in life!
Mark Kurz
June 18, 2016