Joy Miketzuk, Teacher and Snow Sports Enthusiast

 How many teachers do you know? Did you know them when they were first starting as a teacher? Did you ever see them? Probably very little--teaching is incredibly demanding on one’s time and energy, especially in the first couple of years. There are hours of lesson planning, classroom set-up, grading, administrative paperwork, and discipline issues to deal with. Teaching has been such a common profession for so many decades now that we sometimes forget everything it involves. The motto “work hard, play hard” sometimes becomes just “work hard…” unless one is dedicated to enjoying hobbies and getting out of the teaching world (or integrating hobbies into the teaching world) every now and then.

NYC area teacher Joy Miketzuk is both Sporting and Succeeding in her life as a teacher and a snow sports enthusiast. She loves skiing, snowboarding, snow tubing and other outdoor winter activities. New York is a great place in the winter to find these opportunities, but in the summer...she goes to baseball and basketball games! She also enjoys traveling, the beach, and cooking. She entered the New York City Teaching Fellows program to try and offer her well-rounded outlook to the kids of the inner city school district.

Completing the NYC Teaching Fellow program, Ms. Miketzuk gained a special certification for teaching in the inner city. Teaching Fellows are committed to teaching NYC’s diverse students, many of whom have special needs or are new immigrants or non-native English speakers, and to teaching critical-need subject areas, including math and science. Fellows are excellent teachers who advocate for their students and maximize their impact by tackling projects above and beyond their teaching duties, such as starting clubs, traveling to conferences, coaching sports, and building their school communities. The program helps its candidates to approach teaching holistically, realizing there is more to teaching than just explaining multiplication tables. 

Teaching is not a static position. Teachers these days are expected to have limitless energy, and be mentors and authority figures. It helps Ms. Miketzuk’s students when she can relate to them, and offer real-life wisdom combined with strong subject lessons. Combining her hobbies with her passion for teaching, Joy Miketzuk hopes to model Integrity in a Balanced Life to her students (as well as maintain the “...play hard” part of the mantra!).