Romeoville Teacher Named President Of Secondary Reading League

ROMEOVILLE, IL — Lukancic Middle School’s Mark Levine firmly believes an educator’s first responsibility is to help “build up students’ confidence and find the missing pieces” that will “get them excited about learning.” “I don’t consider my work a job. I consider it an opportunity,” the veteran social studies teacher said as he prepared for a yearlong stint as the new statewide President of the Secondary Reading League.

Levine promises to be “a creative director” as the leader of the 400-member SRL, working with sixth- through 12th-grade teachers throughout Illinois to figure out new ways to challenge students through literacy.
“It isn’t just about reading and writing anymore,” Levine said. “There are so many different literacy opportunities in every school in this state.”

A graduate of Governors State University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master's in clinical counseling, he spent the early days of his career counseling adolescents both on the streets and at an in-hospital psychotherapy unit.

But an offer 19 years ago to fill a temporary six-week vacancy teaching a fifth-grade English Language Learner class in Gilman, IL led to a second career as a teacher.

“By the second week, I fell in love with teaching,” Levine said. “In retrospect, I realized everything I had been doing was educating people, whether it was parents or adolescents.”

Levine’s realization that he wanted to be a teacher led him to Aurora University and a second master’s degree. While he was pursuing that degree, he answered a newspaper ad for substitutes in Valley View School District 365U and was eventually hired as a long term language arts substitute at Martinez Middle School. Later that same year, when another teacher quit, he moved into a full time language arts and social studies position.

Four years at Martinez and a year at Brooks Middle School, both teaching social studies, and 12 years teaching social studies at Lukancic have given him a unique perspective.

“Students don’t know what they don’t know,” he said. “It’s a teacher’s job to open their eyes and their minds and to challenge them by diagnosing their needs and deciding how to cheerlead them as they build a sense of excitement about learning.”

As for his new duties as President, Levine admits “I like to change things and change them for the better” but he also says he is looking forward to working with an SRL team that has always made every effort to enhance literacy throughout Illinois.

The Secondary Reading League, an affiliate of the Illinois Reading Council, was formed to provide opportunities for the formal and informal exchange of ideas related to literacy issues and lifelong learning, with an emphasis on reading and the concerns of secondary educators.

Submitted by Valley View School District