“When I worked at a nonpublic transitional school with students that had severe autism, I had one student who was nonverbal but he loved to draw. We (my coworkers and I) had no idea what he was drawing.” The struggle of not understanding what he wanted to draw became a roadblock in the relationship between this student and his teachers.
“He would draw circles all over the page but then color them in different ways. He would get really frustrated with what he wanted to draw but he wanted something… and it sucked because he’d get upset and we couldn’t help him. Then one day the class had watched a movie and he was drawing and we thought it looked like the movie cover. He was drawing VHS and DVD covers, and when I asked if that was what he’s drawing, he was so happy, and started crying.
“I hadn’t taught him anything in that moment but I finally knew what he wanted; it was awesome.” After this happened whenever the student got his pen and paper out, Ms. Samie Rappaport would open up the movie cabinet for him to pick the movies he wanted to draw!
Rappaport teaches Special Education here at Casa Grande High School. When asked what she hopes for her future at Casa, Rappaport said, “I hope to put down a deep root at Casa. My sister and I went here, I have a baby now so I’m hoping to stay in Petaluma and have him go through the Petaluma City School system.”
Rappaport’s favorite part about working at Casa is how collaborative the environment is and that all the teachers clearly want to be here. Rappaport’s favorite part about being a special education teacher is when she’s making strong learning relationships with students and helping them achieve academic breakthroughs. She loves collaborating with other teachers and thinks its beneficial for all teachers to collaborate among their peers.
Rappaport’s positive attitude towards having a close school community is a trait all schools aim to have from their teachers, administrators, and staff. Her positive outlook and her support to her students in the classroom builds her students’ strength to learn despite their intellectual differences. Rappaport’s attitude and drive to be a hard worker is what builds a community’s strength and unity.
Rappaport is a 2010 Casa Grande Graduate as well as a San Diego State Alumnus. At San Diego State, Rappaport majored in Speech Language Pathology, because before she pursued being a teacher, she initially wanted to become a speech therapist.
She describes herself as “an easygoing person. I enjoy my job, my family, my friends. I’m kind of a busy body in that way, I always like to show up and put one hundred percent effort in whether it’s to work or reading a book for my kid.”
A former PE teacher, Mr. Patroni, was her favorite teacher at Casa. “I didn’t like PE but he made it enjoyable. He was a great teacher and made the class enjoyable. He had this really dry sense of humor but in the funniest way. He held the boundary of keeping the student teacher relationship but still made the class enjoyable without acting like he was friends with the students.”
When asked what she hopes for her future at Casa, Rappaport said, “Obviously I have my normal duties with teaching, but in the future, I’d love to get more involved in starting clubs and school events.”
