Many English teachers get excited when they’re discussing favorite works of literature: Dawn DiRoma, a Middle School English Teacher at Charlotte Latin School, is so enthusiastic that she can engage students even when she’s explaining how they should clean out their three-ring binders. Funny, warm, and effusive, DiRoma is a constant cheerleader for her students. After they complete an activity related to their first nonfiction book of the year (Trash Vortex by Danielle Smith-Llera) she asks her classroom, “How’d you guys do? You crushed it?”

Was there a moment in your life that made you want to be a teacher?

That’s a tricky question because I don’t remember ever not wanting to be a teacher. Actually, that’s a lie: I briefly wanted to be a hairdresser because my sister had this Barbie styling head. I did not do a good job cutting Barbie’s hair — my mom was mad that I had ruined it, but my sister liked it and colored the hair with markers — so there went my hairdressing dreams. 

But when I was a kid, I would set up my stuffed animals and teach to them. I would convince my sister to play school, even though she really wanted to be doing something else, and I would help her draw her letters. And I know To Kill a Mockingbird [by Harper Lee] has obsolete language and it marginalizes some of its characters, but I remember reading that book and being devastated. I thought, “Wow, to be a writer who could affect someone like this, I don’t know if I have that in my wheelhouse, but to be a teacher who might help students feel a text like this? I could do that.”

What’s your favorite book to teach now?

We brought back The Outsiders [by S.E. Hinton] this year: there’s relevance for anyone in that story because we all have moments when we feel like we’re inside and we all have moments when we feel like we’re on the outside. Teaching that to seventh graders, and knowing how acutely aware they are of social norms, it gives me the obligation to create an environment where they feel safe talking about it. 

What’s something you do in the classroom that’s different from how you did it a few years ago?

I have always made an effort to connect with my students, not just with things I’m interested in, like hockey, but with things they’re interested in too. A few years ago, when I was teaching elsewhere and my class sizes were larger, it was harder to do that in a way that felt authentic. At Latin, I can make it a touchpoint, and my hope is that it makes students feel more seen. Whether a student is knocking it out of the park in English or they’re having a tough time at that moment, it lets them know that I still see them as a human being.

I’m also much more intentional now about giving students time to process my feedback when they get an assignment back. They make a T chart and they write “Glows” in one column, where they can list things they did well, and “Grows” in the other column, where they can list things they need to work on. I want them to respond to a grade not just with joy or pain, but for it to be a teachable moment: even when they get a good grade, there’s still room for progress; even when they get a lower grade, there’s still something to celebrate.

Oh, and can I talk about the advisory program? Laura Korkowski texted me last summer and asked me to go to a purpose summit. She teaches math and I teach English, but our natural point of intersection is advisory. Laura had responsibility for the seventh grade advisory program, and we wanted to craft a program that would help students feel connected authentically to a community within the community, and to at least one adult in the building: feeling connected to at least one adult has a significant impact on both academic success and mental health. 

At the summit, we spent some time crafting our purpose statements. Mine was “I see and believe in others so they can believe in themselves.” I had never articulated it before. Saying it out loud makes me feel vulnerable, which makes me empathize with my students. Then we got to work on this advisory program: we had the opportunity to get guidance and feedback from people from all over the country who were attending the summit. Some of them were doing the exact same thing in similar independent schools but two years down the road, so we could learn about how they had crafted their programs. 

What practices were important to include in the advisory program?

Everyone had to sit in a circle: that was non-negotiable. Everyone is equal in a circle, everyone can see each other and hear each other in a circle. We always start by greeting each other by name and in a friendly way. Then we do the mood meter, which came from Permission to Feel [by Marc Brackett], which was a community read a couple of years ago. It’s got four quadrants of emotions and students need to pick one word from the board. They don’t have to explain why they’re feeling what they’re feeling, but it gets them used to using that emotional vocabulary, which so many of us shy away from. Then we have a prompt for discussion. The prompts are structured around the CASEL standards, the Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning, so they’re about emotional regulation and self-awareness, but in user-friendly language. We’re teaching students to listen as others speak and to feel safe sharing their voice. 

Where did you grow up?

Simsbury, a town in northwest Connecticut. I went to college in southeast Connecticut, and when people found out I was from Simsbury, they would ask me, “Do you cow-tip?” I was like, “Dude, a cow can’t give milk for two weeks after they’re traumatized!”

How did you become a hockey fan?

I learned to skate growing up, but I did not play hockey because I was a ski instructor in the winter. I was always a sports person and a huge tomboy, outside all the time. We had a boys’ high school team near us that was pretty high-level and we would watch their games. And one of my good friends on my soccer team, her dad had played in the NHL: he spent most of his career with the Philadelphia Flyers, but some of it with the Hartford Whalers, who are the Carolina Hurricanes now. So we used to go to Whalers games all the time, and it was awesome: fast-paced, hard-hitting. There are a handful of students in my classroom who have heard of the Toronto Maple Leafs, or they like the Hurricanes. If they remember me 30 years from now as the teacher who was hockey-crazy, at least they still remember me.