Day 283: Diane Scornavacchi
“… I call them silent heroes, which is a big common name for people like that, but it really is true. There are people every single day in this world who do amazing things. They don’t brag about it, they don’t talk about it, they just get up and do it …”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Diane, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Diane Scornavacchi: Sure. Thank you for having me. My name is Diane Scornavacchi, and I am an instructional support aide for an elementary school working primarily with first and second grade. I am a member of the Board of Directors of a nonprofit agency that deals with specifically at-risk youth, I’m a swim instructor, and last but not least, a wife and mother.
Toni: It’s a pleasure to have you on the Project, Diane, and for the people who are listening and following the Get Inspired! Project all of this time, we are in the last 100 days, and I just thought it would be really, really cool to have a couple family members join us, and so Diane is one of those family members, and I’m thrilled that that you agreed to be part of the Project, so thank you.
Diane: Oh, well thank you for asking me. It’s a pleasure.
Toni: Absolutely. So Diane, when you think of the word inspiration, who do you inspire, and how does that happen?
Diane: Well, I do my best work at school and try to inspire first and second graders that are just emerging readers to love books, to love reading, to love to learn, and that’s basically my … the love of my life is teaching, so that’s what I do best.
Toni: So give me an example of an experience that might happen when you’re working with the kids that you think “You know what? I think I inspired that first grader today.”
Diane: Well, I have the luxury of working with a great group of teachers who allow me a lot of latitude when I teach. They give me a basic plan and let me just go to work, and I take out usually small groups of children at a reading level, and we just explore a book. We read it a little bit out loud. We go over different vocabulary words that they may be just reading and I know they’re reading the word. And I just kind of get the feeling that they’re just reading the word and not actually understanding it, so I say “Do you know what that word means?” They kind of say “No,” and then I go through an explanation of what it means.
After we’re all done with the book, we do something that I call a group talk, and we go around the room and each person gets a chance to talk. They can talk about the book first, and then they can say something personal about themselves, or what they liked about it, whatever. I get so many answers and things just pop out of their minds of what they want to talk about that maybe not even directly relates to what we’ve just read, but something that’s important to them. We go through that, and the children really seem to love to do that. They love to share. That’s basically, you know, what I love to do.
Toni: And so you know, really, isn’t it cool because even at that age, I mean what a great age, right, and to work with kids that age. I mean, I think we do that as adults, don’t we?
Diane: Yes, we do. Actually, the first thing when I first meet them the first few days of school when I’m working with them individually … a lot of them know me already, but some of them don’t and I go through … they come out, and I start to go through some rules, and I think “Oh brother, here come the rules thing of school,” and my very first rule to them is no worries with me. And my second rule is don’t ever be afraid to ask me a question, and my third rule is, don’t ever be afraid to tell me anything you need to tell me, or to tell me that you don’t understand something, because I’m here to help you and to teach you and to guide you with what you need to do, and what’s the best choice that you need to make, and …
Toni: How does … go ahead.
Diane: I’m sorry. And you can see the shoulders just relax and the muscles in the face relax, like okay, this is okay, this is going to be fine. That kind of builds a relationship with the students through the whole year. And even when I’m not teaching them, if they see me down the hall, they’re waving enthusiastically like, “Hello, hello!” They really respond to that, because I don’t treat them as my student, I treat them as someone else’s children who I would want my child to be treated that way. So that’s how I kind of relate to them.
Toni: How do you think being that way with what you’re passionate about doing and working with these kids, do you see what you do as a way to also help at that age for a child to explore their own potential?
Diane: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. School is supposed to be a place of learning and exploration, and I remember back on my own experiences. I was very, very frightened being in school. I was afraid of the teachers, I was afraid of being yelled at. I lived in like a world of fear. I thankfully succeeded out of that fear, but I did not believe that was the optimum way. You know, I’m six years old sitting in the classroom and witnessing a child being yelled at and screamed at because they didn’t know an answer. I’m thinking to myself, this is just not right.
It’s really surprised me that my life has come to this point, because I’ve never in my life dreamed that I would love being around children so much, but I do. I just try to make their experience at school not what it was for me; to give them a safe place, a safe person, to want to come to, to not be afraid of school. School is hard enough with everything you need to learn that it should be a little more relaxed, a little more fun, and I try to, you know, inject that into my teaching.
Toni: How do you take what you do, and does it apply to you? What inspires you?
Diane: Everyday when I see that light bulb go off in their head that they learned a word they didn’t know or they understood something they never really thought about and I explained it, or they had a question just out of the blue – you know how children are – they ask questions about everything, and when I answered them they’re like “Oh yeah, okay, I get it now!” That really hits home with me. This is what I’m supposed to do. This is exactly what I’m supposed to do. Every day I wake up and I never, ever have a feeling like oh, it’s work and I really don’t want to go to work today. I love my job. I love to go to work.
Toni: It’s fantastic, because a lot of conversation on the Get Inspired! Project has been about passion and purpose, and it’s an evolution. It’s an evolution for some to know what their purpose is, and you have found it, haven’t you?
Diane: Yes, and it took me a long time to get to that point. We all have had jobs that we’ve enjoyed, and I loved all of my jobs, but this particular job that I’ve had – I’m going into my sixth year – has been the most phenomenal job I’ve ever had in my life. I just absolutely love it.
I think the main thing, not just about teaching the children with having that light bulb thought of understanding but the compassion that I show them on a daily basis, that they’re not just a number in our school, they are a real person, and I know that they have feelings and they have anxiety and they have nervousness. And if a test is coming up, I know they’re scared about that, and I’m trying to help them not just with learning about their reading, writing, and arithmetic – I help them learn how to just be. How to be a little person in school. How to not be afraid of life.
Toni: What else inspires you, Diane?
Diane: Well, I would say getting out of my little corner of Berks County. I love to try new things, go new places. I need to do that to keep me fresh, because you get stuck in a rut, and a few years ago that was my big New Year’s resolution, and it’s been the same one every year. Do something different. So I need to constantly be going somewhere or having a plan to go somewhere that I’ve never been before.
I also love to read myself. I read, read, read all the time, and I read everything I can get my hands on. I’m always reading about … actually, I read three books at a time. I read a book for fun, just for fun, and I read a book on education or teaching methods or children, and then I read a book for myself, for my own self-growth, like a self-help kind of book. I know it’s a big stereotype, but I enjoy that. So I’m always reading three books at a time.
Toni: That’s fantastic. I’ll tell you, that fits nicely into how you explore your own potential because it sounds to me, your potential, you’re working on that all the time.
Diane: Oh, I am. Another thing that inspires me is talking to other people, because I believe that everybody has a story. The person aside of you, you know, you just happen to be talking to them and you realize that they just did a marathon, and like wow, that’s … it’s just like you’re sitting with a normal person and yet they’ve accomplished something. Or you talk to someone else and they just said that they participated in the Relay for Life because their brother has cancer.
That kind of stuff, the silent … I call them silent heroes, which is a big common name for people like that, but it really is true. There are people every single day in this world who do amazing things. They don’t brag about it, they don’t talk about it, they just get up and do it, like volunteer fireman, the people who do the cancer research, people who participate in those types of fundraisers. Just every day I meet somebody or I talk to somebody who has done something to make a difference, and I wish I could do more. But what I do, I think, I hope, is to make a difference in a child’s life every day.
Toni: Well, it absolutely sounds as though you’re doing that, and with just the final question of the Project, with potential, and the reading that you do and keeping yourself educated – are there other tools and resources that you reach for that you use to explore your potential so you can keep doing and living the life that you’re leading?
Diane: Well, actually I just decided to go back to school and finish my degree, so I’m currently working on that too, and I’m hoping that will give me another level that I can attain within the school district and be a better teacher.
Toni: Well Diane, in this interview you can hear, and I hope others hear as well, that you can hear when you talk about your work – I don’t even want to call it a job …
Diane: No, it’s not a job.
Toni: That you talk about your work and you say it with … you can hear your smile and the passion. And I think the greatest gift that other people can learn from is how you are creating a safe space, and no fear, because that is something, again, I go back to that thing, we teach what we need to learn, and you needed to learn that as a child, and you’re creating that for other children, and I think that’s awesome.
Diane: Thank you. I truly do love what I do. The children are just fantastic. It is a joy to go to work every day.
Toni: Well thank you so much for sharing that and what you’ve learned and what you’re doing for the Get Inspired! Project. I am thrilled to have you be part of it, Diane.
Diane: Well thank you very much. I am honored to be part of the Project.
Toni: Take care of yourself.
Diane: Okay, you too.
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For more information about Diane Scornavacchi: www.thebodhanagroup.org
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