Bedminster Resident Finds Teaching at Matheny 'Challenging' and 'Rewarding'

As part of her assistive technology class at Centenary College in Hackettstown, Dawn Williams and her fellow students visited the Matheny School in Peapack. "I remember leaving the school and telling myself that I would be a teacher there one day," she says. Williams, a resident of Bedminster, had never worked with students with complex disabilities before, and, at first, was taken aback. "By the end of the day," she recalls, "I realized that they are just like any other children. they want to play, they laugh at jokes, they have emotions, they're intelligent and innocent; and, most of all, they want to be treated like any other person would. The students and staff were so welcoming and created such a caring and energetic environment that it was hard to say goodbye at the end of the day." The Matheny School is part of the Matheny Medical and Educational Center, a special hospital and educational facility for children and adults with medically complex developmental disabilities.

After graduating from Centenary in 2012, Williams began substitute teaching at three schools, one of which was Matheny. During the middle of the year, her dream came true. She was offered a fulltime teaching job at Matheny. This year, she has been nominated as Matheny's Educator of the Year in the annual competition sponsored by ASAH, a non-profit association serving private special education schools and agencies in New Jersey. Working at Matheny, Williams says, "has changed my life for the better. Not only is it the most challenging job I have every experienced, but it is also the most rewarding."

Williams currently teaches the preschool class at Matheny, but she has also worked with middle school and high school students. According to Sean Murphy, Matheny principal, Williams is, "a very patient and compassionate individual who takes each student's unique goals, needs and interests into account everyday. She develops lesson plans to meet the needs of auditory, visual, tactile and kinesthetic learners, while also incorporating various forms of manipulatives and technology into each lesson. She takes extra steps to ensure that each student is in a safe and comfortable environment that fits his or her needs."

Teaching at Matheny, Williams says, requires more than simply teaching English, math, science and social studies; she enthusiastically embraces those intangibles that make a special education teacher truly special. She's perfectly willing to be a little foolish just to make her students smile. For example, she sees nothing wrong with painting her feet green and running across the classroom on St. Patrick's Day, pretending to be a leprechaun. She also once made the outside of her classroom look like a life-size gingerbread house. "I comfort them when they're upset," she says. "I laugh with them when something is funny. I believe in them, and, most of all, I never look at them as students with disabilities."

The best teachers, in Williams' opinion, "are those who inspire us, who believe in us until we believe in ourselves, who push us, open up our minds, show us different worlds, help us understand, help us break barriers; and who truly bring out the best in us."