By:Anthony Rifilato
Afternoon Tea
Lenox Elementary School will host an Afternoon tea for former Lenox students to honor retiring teachers Ronnie Bloom and Harvey Dagen on Tuesday, June 22 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the school gym Come visit with old friends and share memories of these beloved teachers.
In room 103 at Lenox Elementary School, teacher Ronnie Bloom has not given much thought to removing her supplies and mementos. And even though she said the "word chunks" will stay on the wall, Bloom is too preoccupied with the day's lesson and busy teaching her second- grade class to think about leaving her classroom, where she has taught for 30 years.
"I feel so at home here," said Bloom, who has taught in Baldwin for 34 years. "I hope whoever comes into this room feels the same way."
After a long and distinguished career in Baldwin, Bloom is retiring this year, and after 30 years at Lenox, will bid farewell to her students and colleagues.
"I feel like this school if my home," said Bloom. "It feels like I just came here."
Bloom had always wanted to be a teacher. As a senior at Boston University, her graduation was canceled due to the protests at Kent State University in 1970, in which four students were killed. Despite the cancellation, Bloom said she stayed in Boston because recruiters from the Baldwin School District were coming to look for new teachers. "I stayed up for the interview," said Bloom, who is from Elmont. After attending a luncheon in Baldwin, Bloom was one of 150 teachers hired by the district.
"I was very excited," she said.
She began teaching third grade at Plaza Elementary School, though, as a young teacher, she was in a new environment and her first day was not the easiest. "It was my first year of teaching so I acted older than I was," said Bloom. "It was nerve racking."
But she soon became accustomed and comfortable as a teacher, and began teaching at Lenox in 1972 where she taught first and second grade.
"I wound up staying here," she said.
Bloom quickly grew attached to her students and school. She attends Sportsnight at the High School and other shows, and has watched her students grow up.
"I do a lot of things where I see the kids all of the time," said Bloom.
She still remains in touch with many of her former students, and even teaches some of their kids.
"My kids still come back to visit," said Bloom. "I have this one little girl who looks just like her mother."
Some students still come to Bloom for advice, like the high school senior who, after being rejected from a college she had wanted to get into, went to Bloom for support.
Bloom has also been picked as Teacher of the Year in the past and has been selected by former students as their favorite teacher at the district's In Recognition of Excellence dinners.
"She was very fun," said fourth-grader Joseph Marchese-Schmitt, who is in the program for the academically gifted. "Without her I'd be a failing student."
Bloom also helped organize Lenox's 50th Anniversary celebrations five years ago, where she saw students from years past.
"It was nice to see so many come back from years before," said Bloom. "It's a wonderful district and I've made lifetime friendships."
Over the years, Bloom has noticed the influx of younger teachers into the district, and said that time has gone by much too quickly.
"I was one of the few young teachers at the school," she said upon coming to Baldwin. "I was always the baby. Now, I transferred from being the youngest to the senior."
Bloom likes to joke that she has been in school since she was six years old. Somehow, she said, it has kept her young at heart. She is planning to travel with her husband of 25 years when she retires, and though her last day is June 25, she isn't counting the days, nor has she thought much about her retirement party on June 17.
"Until school is over," said Bloom, "I can't think about anything else."
