Staff Spotlight: Sarah Lupien
Sarah Lupien has been the Acceleration Specialist at Norris Elementary School for the past 3 years. She sees 35-40 students every day to work on their literacy skills and instill in them the confidence to become lifelong readers.
Norris Principal Corrie Schram said, “Mrs. Lupien has developed skilled readers, confident readers, and kids who are excited to continue to read to learn now. It's really exciting that they're able to have a text in front of them and be able to pull meaning from that text because of all of the work that she's done.”
“[She] has made such an impact on our school and we have been so fortunate to have her with us for three years,” added Schram.
Learn more about Mrs. Lupien in her Q&A below.
What does it mean to be an acceleration specialist?
Mrs. Lupien: I work with students in grades 1-3. I meet with them every single day to focus on their reading skills. I primarily work with students on their targeted strategies, skills, phonics, letter sound manipulation in order to get them to be proficient readers.
About how many students do you work with?
Mrs. Lupien: I see 35 to 40 kids a day. It's really nice to get to work with such an array of students with kids being in first through third. Their skills are all over the place and I love it. It really lets me be able to help them where they struggle the most.
How do you keep track of all of those students and where they are in relation to their goals?
Mrs. Lupien: We use a lot of data to see where they are and to see what skills they struggle with specifically. So we look at that, I look at the kids that I see every single day, I see what they're struggling with, and I formulate targeted instruction in order to best help them.
Describe your career journey and how you ended up in this role.
Mrs. Lupien: This is my third year in East Hartford as Acceleration Specialist. I have been in the education field for over 10 years. I've taught kindergarten, second and third grade, but I would say that this position is the absolute best. I get to work with so many students, in a wide variety of grades, and at the end of the day, the kids come in, they work hard, they're excited to learn and they leave readers. It's such a great feeling.
What are some of the things that you like most about your job?
Mrs. Lupien: Working with the variety of students is really fun. First grade to third grade is a huge jump and it's a huge jump in reading skills. So being able to work with students who don't know letter sound relationships and building those with them, building their phonics skills, and then seeing them read a sentence, read a phrase, read a passage to you is just truly amazing. And then you have third graders who’ve already developed these skills and seeing them then become readers that can comprehend what they're reading is truly amazing.
What is your goal for your students?
Mrs. Lupien: My goal for these students who struggled the most with the reading is for them to become lifelong readers and actually enjoy doing it. I think with them coming to see me every day and their confidence that they build that this is 100% true and it really does happen for most of these students. So it just fills your heart with happiness as a teacher.