Category Archives: Teacher Heroes

In 2008, St. Joseph’s University (SJU) in Philadelphia embedded the Wilson Reading System® into its online graduate programs in special education. Over the past decade, many educators from Pennsylvania and beyond have selected this academic option to advance their professional goals. SJU’s collaboration with Wilson was spearheaded by Cathy Spinelli, former chair of the university’s special education department. The university offers four distinct master’s degree options in special education that include WRS certification. “Most of our graduate students are employed teachers,” ex [...]

Despite her own learning challenges in reading and math as a child, Evan Lefton knew at an early age she wanted to become a teacher after being inspired by a patient middle school teacher who recognized and encouraged her talent in writing. “As a child with a learning difference, I grew up in a time where there was one method, three oral reading groups (mine being the lowest), and many teachers who did not understand or have the patience for a ‘slow reader,’ she shared. “This was excruciatingly painful and embarrassing as a young girl, but it also lit my fire. I knew at an early age [...]

Wilson® Dyslexia Practitioner (W.D.P.) Holly Keple, a first-grade Fundations® teacher at a public elementary school in New Jersey, shares how the love of teaching spans generations in her family. In Holly's words: “I have always wanted to become a teacher ever since I was a little girl. My great-grandmother Gertie was the first to influence me, as she lived with us in our home and shared many of her lessons and handmade books with me. She was a special education assistant who not only passed down the love of teaching to my mother, but also instilled the passion in me. I lived in a home [...]

During our Teacher Appreciation Week Sweepstakes, we asked educators to share their most memorable moments from the field. We received nearly 1,000 responses from across the country, ranging from stories of jubilant children just learning to form words in Fundations® to the triumphant breakthroughs of struggling readers in the Just Words® and Wilson Reading System® programs.“It’s the tiny successes that have the biggest impact,” shared Julie H. “I remember the day one of my students was able to read by himself. I had been working with him for four years ... I cried, along with every [...]