Roberta Valentine

From East Village Community School

Bio by Menen Jarvis, 5th grade

Roberta Valentine works at EVCS as an art teacher. She spends most of the time doing art projects and having fun. She was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. Roberta left her hometown at the age of 18 to go to college. Roberta’s childhood ambition was that she really wanted to be an artist or dancer because really liked to dance with her friends and loved drawing when she was in high school. The first college she went to was an art college for four years to get her BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts). Then she went to get her masters degree in education for two years to become a teacher. Now she is still in school, getting a masters degree in special education. She is doing this to become a better teacher. At this time in Roberta’s life, some of her hobbies are reading, knitting, and drawing. She loves to listen to all different types of music and loves cooking! Before Roberta came to EVCS, she was teaching in a preschool in Green Point, Brooklyn.

What made Roberta want to work at EVCS was that she always admired the teachers and how they worked. Also, because her two daughters went to this school, she knew that the teachers always took care of them. She said that they’re good people to work with. Roberta really cares about the kids in this school and wants them to meet high expectations. She thinks of them as her own children and when she disciplines them, it is because she cares about them and wants them to be able to control themselves and be their best. She said that on weekends she sometimes wishes she can come in and clean up, but on some weekends she is just happy to be at home with her family. She thinks it’s important for teachers to spend time away from school doing the things they love. The hardest thing about Roberta’s job is that she always feels like she has another thing to do. The work never seems done. She says she thinks about it on the subway, on the weekend, she thinks about it while she cooks dinner, she thinks about it all the time! She says in her mind about what she is going to do tomorrow or next week. Roberta believes it’s important for teachers to find different ways to learn and teach because everybody’s mind is different and thinks about things differently. So teachers have to teach to all the different minds in the classroom. When asked what she hopes for her students in the future, Roberta said, “I wish them the world, I wish them to be what they want to be, and that’s why their education matters and is so important. Most of all I want them to wake up every morning and like who they are, and be happy with themselves.”