• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
  • Log In
Itemlive

Itemlive

North Shore news powered by The Daily Item

  • News
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Police/Fire
  • Government
  • Obituaries
  • Archives
  • E-Edition
  • Help
This article was published 10 year(s) and 1 month(s) ago

For Lynn teacher, a learning experience

Steve Krause

June 29, 2015 by Steve Krause

LYNN – For Lynn?s Emily Olson, who has just completed her first year of teaching, being at the Harrington School was a special gift.?Absolutely,” said Olson Friday, shortly after she said goodbye to her first-ever class. She said she feels she established the bond with her second grade class and that she?ll always remember the boys and girls she taught this year.?I think I?ll remember all my classes,” she said, “but this one in particular. I know people say this all the time, but I think I learned as much from them as they learned from me. Maybe even more.”It didn?t hurt that the other two members of her teaching team were people she grew up, and played softball with, all through her childhood and adolescence: Amanda Stevens and Jenny Garrity.?It was a great experience teaching with them,” said Olson, who was first baseman on St. Mary?s 2009 state championship softball team. “I learned a lot from them, too. And my mentor – we all have mentors when we start out – Sheila O?Neil.”Although she was there in October to bask in the glow of Harrington bolting from a Level 4 to a Level 1 school in only four years, “that had already happened when I got here.”A Colby-Sawyer graduate in early childhood education who has begun the application process for her master?s, Olson loved everything about Harrington.?It?s so rich in its culture,” she said of the student population?s diversity. “It?s a great experience to learn from these children.”Olson is a believer in the “I do, we do, you do” method of teaching.?I?ll teach them something, and then we?ll do it together, and then I ask them to do it themselves,” she said.One of the advantages in that, she said, is that you learn right away if your methods are working.?You might present a plan, and when you try to teach it, it?s not working,” she said, “You constantly have to readjust.”She also feels children respond best when there?s a daily routine.?I think they need that,” she said. “They know I?m always there to talk to them. I think they loved coming to school. I try to make learning fun.”Olson said that when she was a child, she didn?t like school right away. It was only after she changed from the Sewell-Anderson school to the Landmark School in Beverly that she changed her outlook.?I was in the fourth grade,” she said, “and I had a teacher (Robert Stacey) who taught me how to study. She taught me that no matter who you are, you can learn.?I fell in love with (school) after that,” she said. “And that?s when I wanted to be a teacher, so I could pass that onto other children.”As a result, she said, her goal is to know each child enough to teach individual learning strategies.And while she, like most people, will look forward to the change of pace of the summer (she?s on the staff at Campfire in Salem this summer) she is also looking forward to coming back this fall.?The whole team?s back,” she said. “We work well together.”

  • Steve Krause
    Steve Krause

    Steve Krause is the Item’s writer-at-large. He joined paper in 1979 as a copy editor and later created a music column, called Midnight Ramblings, which ran through 1985. After leaving the paper for a year, he returned in 1988 as a reporter and editor in sports. He became sports editor in 1998; and was named writer-at-large in 2018. Krause won awards for writing in 1985 from United Press International; in 2001 from the Associated Press; and again in 2020 from the New England Newspaper & Press Association. He is a member of the Harry Agganis Foundation Hall of Fame, a past winner of the Moynihan Lumber Scholar-Athlete Community Service Award, and was the 2012 recipient of the Jack Grinold Media Award for MasterSports, an organization that conducts high school and college coaches’ clinics. He lives in Lynn, is active on Facebook, and can be found on Twitter @itemkrause.

    View all posts

Related posts:

No related posts.

Primary Sidebar

Advertisement

Sponsored Content

Solo Travel Safety Hacks: How to Use eSIM and Tech to Stay Connected and Secure in Australia

How Studying Psychology Can Equip You To Better Help Your Community

Solo Travel Safety Hacks: How to Use eSIM and Tech to Stay Connected and Secure in Australia

Advertisement

Upcoming Events

1st Annual Lynn Food Truck & Craft Beverage Festival presented by Greater Lynn Chamber of Commerce

September 27, 2025
Blossom Street, Lynn,01905, US 89 Blossom St, Lynn, MA 01902-4592, United States

2025 GLCC Annual Golf Tournament

August 25, 2025
Gannon Golf Club

Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board Agenda

August 19, 2025
Zoom Meeting

Alicia Villarreal Tickets

November 14, 2025
Lynn Massachusetts Boston

Footer

About Us

  • About Us
  • Editorial Practices
  • Advertising and Sponsored Content

Reader Services

  • Subscribe
  • Manage Your Subscription
  • Activate Subscriber Account
  • Submit an Obituary
  • Submit a Classified Ad
  • Daily Item Photo Store
  • Submit A Tip
  • Contact
  • Terms and Conditions

Essex Media Group Publications

  • La Voz
  • Lynnfield Weekly News
  • Marblehead Weekly News
  • Peabody Weekly News
  • 01907 The Magazine
  • 01940 The Magazine
  • 01945 The Magazine
  • North Shore Golf Magazine

© 2025 Essex Media Group