Schools
Teacher of the Week: Making a Difference in the Classroom
Patty Oleksiak, 15-year veteran, teaches her refugee students English, social skills and a better way of life as they assimilate to American society.
Patty Oleksiak is a special kind of teacher whose efforts extend well past the classroom.
Oleksiak is a English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, who educates refugee students that, by good fortune, were able to relocate to the U.S.
Luckily, given the district’s rich diversity and its renowned ESL program, these youngsters are able to work through past hardships, rebuild and assimilate into American society.
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“In the past five years, we’ve had different waves of refugees come through,” she said. “The first group was comprised of ethnic Turks who came from Russia, next were two groups that came from Thailand through Burma: one group being mostly Muslim and speaking Burmese and the other group being Christian and speaking Karen. “Then immigrants arrived from Iraq and Africa from war-torn environments.”
Before she can teach them, Oleksiak nurtures her students as most are too afraid to even speak when they arrive. She works with volunteers, gets them clothes to wear and ensures that they’re well nourished.
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She helps build their social skills, gets them talking and communicating and then begins to successfully educate them.
“The (Ohio Department of Education) recognized us as one of the best programs in the state five years ago,” she said. “Given Lakewood’s diversity, we were one of the first districts in Ohio to start an ESL program. Now, administrators and teachers come from around Ohio to observe our program, and they use it as a model to build their own within their respective district.”