By Nia Berry
Staff Writer
In the small community that is Science Leadership Academy, people know everyone. However, many people may not have noticed the new addition made to our faculty : Learning Support teacher Ms. Beth Menasion.
Ms. Menasion was hired just three months ago due to the additional need for teachers in the Learning Support class located in Room 206. Because she doesn’t teach a traditional subject class, many students have yet to meet her.
Ms. Menasion says her overall interest in child development and how the brain works stemmed from a childhood job as a high school camp counselor. After she graduated from her high school in North Jersey , she attended West Chester University for a year and later transferred to Temple University to receive her certification in Special Education.
Prior to coming to SLA, Ms. Menasion taught Pre-School at the Parent Infant Center in West Philadelphia. Before that, she worked at John Welsh Elementary, a district school in Northern Liberties.
She has also been a longtime friend of SLA through Art and Technology Teacher Marcie Hull, who she has known for fifteen years. She has two young children and lives in West Philadelphia.
This is the first time Ms. Menasion has taught high school students. When asked how the transfer from pre-school students to high school students was going, she commented, “it’s fun! It’s interesting hearing their thoughts and opinions.” Some of the techniques she uses for learning support include listening to meet needs, mnemonic devices, and use of graphic organizers.
Ms. Menasion’s goal for her work at SLA is to help students create strategies for being successful. She finds SLA’s program “amazing” and believes the environment is ideal for teaching and motivated learning. Ms. Menasion says that she is “in awe” of the other teachers at SLA, and looks forward to learning more from them.
She looks forward to her future in the SLA community and is open to student and teacher ideas for a better Learning Support class.
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