Muchas Gracias, Señora Ware: Retiring Avalon Spanish Teacher Brought The Language To Life
Ware and the then-sixth grade class (now eighth grade graduates) honoring the dia de los Muertos.
Deborah Ware never wanted to teach from a textbook. She was the book.
Giving Spanish instruction from life experience formed the basis for Ware’s enriched career spanning more than 40 years in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey. The bulk of her journey came at Avalon Elementary School. That’s where the newly retired, two-time Teacher of the Year was known for distributing materials she’d compiled in binders rather than reciting plans from a textbook.
Ware actually developed the program found inside those binders, connecting students in grades 1-8 with something deeper than homework. Her approach was upbeat, innovative, nontraditional and cutting edge, bringing the language to life in song, games and real-life interaction. Ware even visited with preschoolers.
“I love it so much, I eat, drink and sleep Spanish,” she says. “I tell my kids and family members that there is a benefit to knowing about other languages. We are in the United States, a melting pot, and everybody should at least have the opportunity to know another language. When you go to other countries and say even a little bit of their language, you are so welcomed. There is a warm feeling of acceptance.
“I feel if the language doesn’t come from the heart, what’s the sense?” she adds. “Rather than memorize dialogues, I would prefer to teach real life, which is not mimicking what’s in a book, or the person in that book. You don’t know the person in that book.”
Thanks to Ware’s program, students acquire workable language skills ranging from how they live to the art of compiling a shopping list and bartering. There is magic to the way language can be understood, and retained.
Her classrooms merged language with culture, displaying a proven method of dispensing knowledge: make it a game, a contest, an exercise. Think of how spelling bees turned something potentially arduous into fun. Or consider how unconventional methods appear in other genres. Some of the most famous advertisements, for example, are jingles. Ware sang “Happy Birthday” to students in Spanish on their birthdays, decorated the area for Cinco de Mayo and engaged them in the midst of games, making them apply the English translation to a Spanish word in order to play.
Ware’s final day in mid-June closed a significant era here. This was, by all accounts, a match made in academic heaven. Avalon got a seasoned, passionate teacher, while Ware was given the freedom to implement her ideas.
“It was a wonderful, fabulous journey for me in Avalon,” she says. “It was everything I expected and more. Avalon always was the utopia of public schools for me. Although I live in Vineland, I know more people in Avalon than anywhere else. This has been such a terrific place to teach.
“I could see this was possible even when I interviewed for the job [1990],” she adds. “Parents, administrators, the board, fellow teachers, everything looked like a dream come true. I said if I ever got this job, I would absolutely love it. You could see that everyone was happy and this was a safe haven for teaching and learning. People got along. They say, ‘Can I do this for you or that for you?’ I am so glad I got the job and have loved every minute of it.”
Ware inspired a love of Spanish in her students, many of whom take Spanish II and III in high school. One went on to became a Spanish teacher.
“When one of my students told me that at the retirement party, it was emotional for me,” she says. “It made me very proud not only about that but about how these kids have grown up. You teach them when they are very young, your life moves on and you never expect they are going to be so thoughtful and remember you almost 30 years later. It was wonderful.”
This was not the career Ware envisioned growing up in Fall River, Mass. She attended Annhurst College, a private Catholic college in South Woodstock, Conn., which operated from 1941 to 1980. Ware, whose parents spoke Portuguese, majored in Spanish and studied for two years in Spain. She also minored in French. The combined language lineup of Portuguese, English, Spanish and French pointed her toward becoming an interpreter. She’d begun the testing process for a United Nations position when a teaching job opened nearby.
It paid so little, she says with a laugh, “that my father said I spent more money sending you to college than you make. On my graduation day from college, a nun told my mother I was going to miss my calling, that I should really be a teacher.”
That philosophy was borne out. Ware moved to southern New Jersey when her husband, Vince, got a job at a Vineland newspaper. That led to her discovery of the Avalon position and the job of a lifetime.
“She is a joy to be around,” says administrative clerk Fran Richardson, once a homeroom aide for Ware. “I sat in on a lot of her Spanish classes and saw what a remarkable teacher she is. Deborah considers her students her children, she just loves them. Besides being mothering and caring, she is a wonderful, remarkable teacher. At her retirement party, students who go way back with her came and showed video clips. It was amazing.”
Ware is revered by two of her longtime colleagues, Pamela Funk and Catherine Krause.
“Debbie lives by the adage that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well,” says Funk, who teaches reading, language arts and social studies. “She strives for excellence in everything she does and instills this virtue in her students. Debbie sets the bar high in her life and in her classroom because she knows that students will rise to meet it.
“I have spent the last 14 years across the hall from Debbie, and her creativity and passion for teaching have made me a better teacher. It is always inspirational to see the latest original game or inventive project that she has devised to help her students internalize the Spanish language.”
On a personal level, Funk considers Ware one of the most generous people one could meet.
“I remember one instance, several years back, when I admired her dress,” Funk recalls, noting her “fabulous wardrobe.” “The next day she came to my room with a shopping bag. She had bought the dress for me! This incredible generosity and kindness have been repeated throughout the years we have worked together. She makes homemade ‘nibbles’ for everyone in the building at Christmas, creates colorful spring baskets for us at Easter, and never forgets a birthday.
I feel extremely fortunate to have shared the past 14 years with this consummate professional with a heart of gold!”
Krause, who teaches science right near Ware’s classroom, has admired her over the last 16 years.
“She is a phenomenal teacher, I wish I could be like her,” Krause says. “Her energy is amazing. What you hear coming from her room is wonderful. You can hear the children laughing, you can hear them singing. And when they leave, they are speaking Spanish.”
Krause calls Ware “an amazing teacher and person. She will be missed terribly.”
“Deborah’s honors were well-earned,” says Stacey Tracy, the superintendent and principal of Avalon Elementary School. “She is a fabulous teacher who has created a program for our students that you cannot replicate. Deborah provides so much with the content, the culture, the language, the deep knowledge of grammar and intonation of words. You can’t replace her, but we have to try.”
