SMSA is thrilled to announce the onboarding of our newest faculty member and Literacy AIS teacher, Mrs. Eileen Wallace. Mrs. Wallace will be leading small group instruction for those in need of reading intervention services as well as playing a supportive role to our faculty in integrating literacy programs and techniques in our Pre-k through 8th grade classrooms.
Mrs. Wallace graduated from SUNY Oneonta with a Bachelor's of Science in Education. She then earned her MS in Literacy from Queens College with NYS Permanent Certifications in both Reading and Elementary Education.
As a retired teacher of 30+ years on Long Island, Mrs. Wallace views education and literacy from a 'new lens'". "I consider myself a lifelong learner. In my final year of teaching, I took a year-long online course titled LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling). It is a program rooted in the science of reading that provides teachers with skills to master reading instruction—phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and language", says Wallace.
She kicked off her onboarding with a ferocious tenacity by evaluating ALL students in grades K-8 to determine their reading fluency and comprehension in collaboration with veteran teacher, Mrs. Jess Trzaskos. She has led the effort in purchasing the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness program for PreK through 5th grade. In addition, Fundations literacy magnetic journals that arrived during the pandemic were prepared and distributed to K, 1, & 2 for classroom use.
Wallace is a member of the New York State Reading Association and Nassau Reading Council. She resides with her husband in the North Country. She has 3 adult children and spends time with her 2 dogs: Dack and Darby.
Questions related to literacy at home, intervention services, or general reading can be sent to Mrs. Wallace via email: ewallace@smsarcs.org.