Mayor Sutherland visits Normandy Elementary classroom

Mayor Debbie Sutherland was teacher for a day at Normandy Elementary in Bay Village.
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Students in Mrs. Szelesta's first-grade class had a special visitor recently. Bay Village Mayor Deborah Sutherland helped them with their morning class assignments.

"I had so much fun with Mrs. Szelesta and her class!” said Mayor Sutherland. “They were all so engaging and energetic. I was very impressed with the creative, integrative, and interdisciplinary teaching that takes place at Normandy."

Mrs. Szelesta came away with a good impression of the program and the Mayor's visit. "It was nice to know that she could really see all that goes into a first-grader's day," she said. "Tying shoes, Band-Aids, forgetting a lunch, a ponytail falling out and forgetting library books were all minor things, but 'major' first-grader problems that she experienced with me all in the first hour of the morning!"

"I particularly loved how surprised she was at the many different ability levels within one classroom. She mentioned how some children were able to zip right through our story while others struggled on each page of the same book. She also found it surprising that I had written the same sentences on a sentence strip from the book and then cut them apart, even the children who were able to read the story with ease were stumped by this activity."

The Mayor plans to follow up with another visit in the spring. "It will be so exciting to see her return and experience the growth of the children," said Mrs. Szelesta. "She will be so proud of each of the children and all of their hard work!"

The Mayor showed up for her classroom work wearing a cast on her foot from a recent stress fracture. "The kids still talk about being able to decorate her cast/boot," said Mrs. Szelesta. "She brought a rainbow of Sharpie marker colors for the kids to use and they loved it."

She added, "I enjoyed showing the Mayor around the building. We had a great conversation about the lack of space in the building and her possible ideas for the future."

The visit was the kick-off for a new program at Normandy, the Celebrity Visitor Program, that will allow some of our leading citizens to participate in classroom instruction. "We believe it's a good way for citizens to observe and really experience the complexities and what goes on in a modern, top quality, elementary classroom," said Dr. Jim McGlamery, Normandy's principal.