Our Students, Now: Elementary Teacher Jeanne Casino

Jeanne Casino, a class of 1988 Mount Vernon High School graduate, has been teaching in the Mount Vernon City School District for 30 years. She joined the District as a substitute teacher soon after graduating college. Ms. Casino is currently an elementary teacher at Benjamin Turner Academy. She previously taught at Rebecca Turner Elementary School, formerly Longfellow. She values the opportunity to work in her hometown and make school enjoyable and exciting for her students. She also serves as the vice president of the Mount Vernon Federation of Teachers. 

“Ms. Casino has been a vital elementary teacher in the District for so long, and the students at Benjamin Turner Academy are lucky to have her,” said Acting Superintendent Dr. K. Veronica Smith. “She brings excitement and joy to her classroom every day, and students are always ready to learn when they enter Ms. Casino’s room because they know it will be interesting and engaging. We are so happy to have her working with our students.”

View the Q+A with her here!

What inspired you to come back to the MVCSD to become a teacher?

When I first graduated college in 1992, I couldn’t find a teaching job in Mount Vernon. Across the state it was very difficult those first few years to get a job. So, I came in and subbed. I was a sub for two years before I was officially hired. I remember all the teachers that I had – I went to Columbus School, and I went to A.B. Davis Middle School – and I had such great teachers and great friends, and it was a great community. I wanted to teach where I grew up. I had great teachers at Columbus, Davis and the high school that I remember still. It just felt like it was the right thing to do. 

How do you think your time in the District prepared you for a career in teaching?

When I graduated, I didn’t want to be a teacher. I went to school for pre-med. Then my sophomore year – I went to the College of Mount Saint Vincent – one of the nuns there asked me to help out in the after-school program. I went and thought, “Oh, I could do this.” It just made me think of all the teachers that I had, like my fifth grade teacher Mrs. Boykin, the best teacher ever, who saw that I was a reader and a good speller. Then we had Mr. Cuglietto at Davis. I never thought until I left and looked back that it was something that I could be good at. 30 years later, I think I still am; I hope I still am.

At the high school we had great teachers who just believed that you were a good person that could do good things, whatever those things were. I never thought about it (teaching) until I was presented with an opportunity.

Are there any teachers or mentors from your time in the District that inspire you in your work today? What did you take from them, and how do you transfer it to your work? 

In fifth grade I had Mrs. Boykin, and that’s when I developed my love for reading. When I came back to work in the District, she was still here. I remember always calling her Mrs. Boykin; I could never call her by her first name. I remember vividly the reading groups we had, and we were named after birds. We read a story, and we cooked or baked or made connections; we sewed. It was more than just learning out of a book. It was exciting.

In middle school, just the way that we were taught. It was more than just reading in a book and reciting answers. We always had discussions, and reading was important. We did a lot of current events. Just having discussions made us think we were important. It wasn’t just memorizing information, there were life lessons and learning about being a good citizen, being a good person, being kind.

At the high school, it was the same way. A lot of us are still close to this day from that group. Listening to students and their opinions and what they have to say is important. Sometimes you have to just let them talk. It might not be a part of the lesson, but they might want to tell you something and you just have to let them. Growing up, we were allowed to be us. We had a voice and we had an opinion. We all felt important at school.

What was your favorite part about attending the District or growing up in Mount Vernon?

I remember when we were in sixth grade and we went on a three day trip to the Amish country. That was memorable. I remember in high school, we had Mr. Cuglietto. We had him in middle school and then we had him again in high school. Getting ready for the Regent’s, I remember him dragging the chalkboard out to the front lawn of the high school. Students would just come, and he would practice and review math out on the front lawn of Mount Vernon High School. There are just so many good things and good teachers that we talk about, but those are a few. Math with Cuglietto was the best.

What’s the feeling of being able to work in the District you graduated from?

I still feel really good about being a teacher in this city. I teach students of students that I taught. In 30 years, you meet a lot of people, and see them in the bank and they recognize you and tell you things that you did with them like donating to the animal shelter, concerts, and activities in class that they remember. There’s someone working in this district right now that I taught. It’s just really good that they have positive experiences from being students in the Mount Vernon school system, and I’m giving them what was given to me as a student. So, I think it’s important that they see people that their parents know and people in the community, people who look like them, and people that they can go to for help.

Every day I come to work, it's what can I do for students. I’m also the PTA treasurer. Giving experiences to students is what we do, it’s what should be important. I remember the first time going to a store and them seeing me, and they’re amazed that you live outside of the school because sometimes the little ones think you live here. It’s nice that people recognize you and have great memories of what you did with them as a student. I think I’m always a teacher first.

Are there any unique strategies that you use to be successful with your students? 

I try to build confidence that they do like math and can do math. I think that’s important. Sometimes they're afraid of math, and if they don’t know their basic facts, they get nervous. We try to teach all the different ways that you can learn how to multiply or add or subtract. When I was a kid, there was only one way to do it. Just building confidence and having them want to come to school to learn. We had our awards ceremony, and I gave a student an award for most improved. His mother was happy, and she had said that he likes coming to school, he likes to go to math, he wants to study and learn his facts. It makes you feel good. 

What would you say to a student who might want to become a teacher?

Teaching today is very different from what it was 10 or 20 years ago. New teachers have to want to teach children, and they have to know that it’s a lot of work. It’s more work than they think: weekends and summer vacations, we work at night, we work over the weekend, we’re involved in our school community. It's a lot more than just 8-3. They have to be willing to put in the work because it’s a lot of work, but there’s also a lot of rewards. Like seeing a student who didn’t get something, then finally getting it and understanding it. But, it’s a lot of work. It’s not an easy job because if it was an easy job everybody would do it.

Is there any other advice you give students to help them on their academic journey? 

I think students have to realize that there’s always someone here to help them no matter who they ask. There’s so many people who work in a school now – counselors and social workers, other teachers, lunch monitors and security monitors – that there’s always someone here. If the first person doesn’t help you, then you find someone else. But, someone will always help you.