- Hey, everyone, Steve Adubato.

There she is, Jacqui Tricarico, our Senior Correspondent.

Jacqui, we had a whole week where we celebrated teachers on Teacher Appreciation Week.

In this segment that you're about to conduct some interviews with two teachers, are they County Teachers of the Year?

- Yeah, they're New Jersey County Teachers of the Year.

They were named back in August when they went through all 21 counties naming teachers from each county as the Teacher of the Year for that particular county.

And I get the chance to speak with two of them, Pamela Eng and Dr.

Thrbak about why teaching is so important to them, their passion to keep teaching 10 plus years into their careers and the ups and downs of educators.

We know it's often talked about teacher burnout and the struggles teachers are facing today.

So we go through all of those topics, talk about that, and so much more with these two fantastic educators here in New Jersey.

- Listen, it doesn't have to be Teacher Appreciation Week to appreciate our teachers, and Jacqui does just that with these two terrific teachers who we recognize.

Jacqui and two great educators.

Check it out.

- Hi, I am Jacqui Tricarico, Senior Correspondent for "Think Tank," and I'm so pleased to be joined now by two New Jersey County Teachers of the Year.

Pamela Eng, who's a third grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary School in Edison, and Dr.

Tiffany Thrbak, who's a Resource and Inclusion ELA teacher at Williamstown Middle School in Monroe Township.

It's so great to have both of you with us.

- Thank you for having us.

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

- Well, first of all, congratulations.

What a true honor to be named New Jersey County Teachers of the Year.

I wanna talk about that day finding out that you were named New Jersey County Teacher of the Year.

Pamela, first with you.

What was that day like for you?

- I got an email about an assembly that we all had to go to, and it's a little confusing, but my class kind of, we pulled it together.

We went down, the superintendent was reading a story to us, which was also a little odd, and mid-story, all of the administrators walked in.

My principal was there, there was somebody there with balloons.

And then, it kind of dawned on me that it was around that time of year and that this was going to be the moment.

- That's amazing.

And then you find out you're named New Jersey County Teacher of the Year.

What were your initial emotional reaction to that?

- Complete shock.

When I did the application, I did it trying my best, but I really, in my wildest dreams, didn't even think that I would win.

New Jersey is full of amazing educators, and to be the one selected for my county was just unbelievably amazing.

- Dr.

Thrbak, we know, yeah, that a lot of the times it's a big surprise and they love to surprise the teachers with this recognition.

What was it like for you to find out?

- Similar, very similar.

The county superintendent, my superintendent, my principal, the deputy county superintendent, I was teaching, I was really into a lesson.

The kids were engaged and all of a sudden they came in with these flowers and balloons.

And I guess my kids knew because they started, you know, kind of clapping and yelling, and it was just, the picture that is captured in one of the local newspapers that has me going like this, you know?

And so, that captures the moment, you know, it was just an amazing feeling.

Like Pam said, there are so many, it's like, I think there was 1,600 of us, you know?

Just that feeling to be acknowledged for the work that you do in your small little classroom is just a great feeling.

And I share this, I share this with the rest of Cumberland County.

- Yeah.

Well deserved for both of you.

I know you're doing incredible things, not just in the classroom, but in your community.

So let's talk a little bit about that.

Pamela, I wanna start with you, because I know your background actually, when you first got started in your career, you were actually working in television with a little TV show, and we all know very well here at PBS, "Sesame Street," which obviously its roots are really built on education.

So tell us about why you transitioned and when you knew that teaching was gonna be your passion and what you wanted to pursue.

- The role of becoming a teacher is really a seed planted by a teacher.

So one night I was grocery shopping and I ran into my second grade teacher and I was working in New York as a production assistant, and she asked me how work was going.

And I told her, I liked it, it was fun, but I didn't love it.

And she said to me, "You really need a job that you love.

This is gonna be a career for the rest of your life.

You need something you love."

And I said, "I just don't know what that's going to be."

And she looked at me and said, "When I met you at seven-years-old, I always thought you would be an amazing teacher."

And that idea kind of just sat with me and I thought, "I do like teaching, I like working with kids.

Maybe I should be a teacher."

And so, that's where my educational journey began with the seed that the teacher planted.

- That's incredible.

Knowing things had to align so specifically to run into that one teacher, to help you figure out that next phase of your career and your life.

Dr.

Thrbak, I wanna talk about your background too, because I know you're a certified school social counselor as well.

Talk about how you bring that knowledge into the classroom and with your students, students that you call your students with exceptionalities.

Describe that.

- Yes, so I started out as a paraprofessional.

And then I went in to become a homeless student coordinator, and then to teaching, and then to become a school social worker.

So I'm moving back into the classroom for a variety of reasons, but one of my quotes that I hold tight to is by Frederick Douglass, "It's easier to build strong children than it is to prepare broken men."

So that really helped me to understand where I'm coming from when I'm relating to students, whether it be in school social work, because I became a certified school social worker, I was counseling students with behavioral and academic challenges, and that just allowed me to be a better teacher, was a teacher, then I went into social work and then back into the classroom.

It just helped me to be a better teacher.

I call them students with exceptionalities because a lot of people like to say, "Oh, they're special ed."

And sometimes that can have a negative connotation.

And so, regardless of their abilities, their race, their exceptionality, whether it be mental, emotional, or physical, they are exceptional.

And that's why I say I'm a teacher of students with exceptionalities.

- I love that.

And Pamela, talk about, a little bit about your students, right?

Because teaching, I think both of you have been teaching for over 10 years now, and, you know, getting back into the classroom after that summer break every year, I've heard from teachers that I know, you know, sometimes can be tough and teaching is an amazing profession that does not get enough credit.

But also there's a lot of ups and downs with it as well.

Pamela, talk about your students and what keeps you motivated coming back into the classroom year after year.

- My students keep me motivated to come back to the classroom.

The beginning of the year is a great fresh new start.

The students are always so excited, they're so happy to see their friends, but the beginning of the year is a great opportunity to really build those relationships with your students and really set the pace of what the school year is going to be about.

So just having that energy and keeping it up throughout the school year.

- Something that you both also have in common is making sure you're prioritizing giving back and helping your community outside of the classroom.

Dr.

Thrbak, talk about the term you coined students, I love how you have a lot of these great terms, they're really impactful.

Talk about students in transition and what you've been doing in your community.

- So one of the things that I've been doing in my community is just making sure that my students feel connected to the world.

I advocate for them inside and outside the classroom.

So while I'm integrating real-world applications of cultural awareness into my lessons, I'm also addressing the whole child academically, socially, emotionally, culturally.

And, you know, I just make sure my classroom is a place where they can be seen, heard, and respected, and then they know that outside the classroom, I'm creating experiences that empower them to take pride in who they are.

Dr.

Yaso has community cultural wealth, and it's important this, that's her theory, and it's important to make sure that that child is seen from a wealth position rather than a deficit lens.

And so, what I've done was organize events surrounding Native American heritage, Hispanic heritage, Black history, and those powerful immersive experiences that I make sure my students take part in, I bring in judges, prosecutors, entrepreneurs, community leaders, hairdressers, plumbers, martial artists, nutritionists, all of that to allow them to know that they can be anything that they wanna be, regardless of their identity, regardless of injustices that are out there, and they can lead.

And this is the next generation.

And we're trying to inspire that next generation to become and be, you know, all that they can be to be productive members of society.

- What are their reactions when you're bringing in all these types of people to talk to them in the classroom?

- Oh, they are, and it's in our school community through assemblies and different things like that.

And then after school at night, bringing in the board members, and all of them, they are amazed, they want to talk to them because I try to keep it young as well, you know, the seasoned and the young, but they are amazed.

They wanna talk to them after.

They run the panels, the young people, so they get to question and ask questions and they are inspired, they are amazed.

And every one of them, you know, leaves with a smile on their face, and the mayor recently gave a card to one of the kids and they thought, we just got our cards, and they were just, "Oh, I got a card, I got a card."

And they know that they can also be a part of that when they give back.

- That exposure is just so important at such a young age.

Pamela, for you, I know you're the co-chair of the Community Service Committee at your school.

Talk about that in the ways that you're getting your kids involved in some of those community efforts.

- It's very important for me that the school kind of feels like a sanctuary place for the students.

So first and foremost for me, I wanna make sure that the students here at my school are taken care of, whether it's through clothing, whether it's through food.

So as the community service chair, we help to make sure that all of the students here have whatever they need, whether it's a winter coat, whether we're gathering the breakfast and giving home goody bags for the students to bring home for those who need it.

But it's also important for me, for the students to realize that they're also change makers.

And while you are young elementary students, there's nothing that you can't do to help have an impact on your community.

So whether we are having food drives where they're collecting things, whether it's a book drive or our free little library out front, where they can donate some of the books that they've read and collect new books, I want them to understand that no matter how old you are, you are always able to help others, and anything that you can do to help support your community, that's our role as humans, as people, is to give back and support one another in any way that we can.

- Definitely, that's incredible.

And talking about reading, I wanted to get into a little bit about AI and technology and how it's impacting teachers today and how they're teaching and still getting their kids and the students just really excited about reading, excited about writing.

Dr.

Thrbak, how are you making sure that your students are also really engaged with the classroom material outside of using technology and AI right now?

- Well, one of the ways I, you know, when I speak to parents, I am encouraging to read to their kids.

I don't care what it is, if it's a magazine or it's an article, they need to read to their kids and read in their language, and read any and everything.

And it must be a balance.

We have to maintain this balance, you know, of having technology and having hands-on things to do in the classroom, when that's blended, when we use that blended approach, maximizing the engagement and efficiency while avoiding that screen fatigue, and it helps to maintain interpersonal skills, that is really needed because kids are like this, you know, and, you know, they're like this.

And they don't know how to relate to one another and that is an important skill.

So it can't just be technology, social media, it has to have a balance.

So we need to definitely blend the two together and do different activities that'll encourage them.

Sometimes I just say take, you know, we're gonna take out a piece of paper, make whatever you want.

We're going to take out a color where you'd like to be, and then share it and talk about it to your peer, your peer colleague is what I try to make sure they get exposure to that word colleague, their peer colleague, and just talk.

And you'd be amazed, you'd be amazed.

- Yeah, it's important.

Pamela, how are you, give us a concrete example of how you are doing that, balancing between the technology and what you're teaching and hands-on learning.

- The technology is great in terms of, you know, it helps me allow to pull materials that are at students levels.

It helps students to have access to books that they can listen to if that's what they need.

But I also, like Dr.

Thrbak said, there's something in the touch of holding a book, there's something in the touch of getting together to talk about a story that we read, that shared conversations that we can have over a shared reading.

So we have times where yes, the technology is a helpful tool, but at the end of the day, we best learn through our hands, through touching, through doing.

And that's really something that technology I don't think can ever really replace.

- And through conversation for sure too.

And final thoughts, I just wanted to ask both of you, what type of advice you would give a young person thinking to pursue a career in education?

We hear so much about teacher burnout, but the importance of building that teacher pipeline.

So Dr.

Thrbak, what about you?

What advice would you give a young person thinking about going into the teaching profession?

- I would tell a young person to heavily consider it and not just think about it, but do it, like Nike says, "Just do it," right?

Just do it because there's more than just an inner reward to it, but being able to pass on your knowledge, your kindness, your empathy, teaching students is, it can't be summed up, I don't think, in one word.

And we need to have it glamorized a little bit more at the state, at the state, and local levels because it's worth it.

You know, we need to make sure our students are productive members of society.

And so, for all of those who don't wanna go into medicine and don't wanna be an influencer, come and influence our babies, influence your community, because that's what it's all about.

- I totally agree.

Pamela, for you.

- Teaching is without a doubt a hard job, but it is also the most rewarding job that you will ever have.

It's building those relationships and really knowing that you've made a positive impact in someone's life.

And it can be the smallest thing that you've done, but for a child it means the entire world.

And I can't think of any other career where something so simple to you can change an entire person's life.

And, you know, I'm an example of that.

My second grade teacher who years, I saw years later down the road, just an idea that she had, it changed my entire career.

- And you both are changing lives every single day in the classroom.

And I know that's why you were selected as New Jersey County Teachers of the Year.

Thank you so much for the work you're doing and for joining us today so we could hear more about the incredible work you're doing every day.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you for having me.

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

- Thank you.

For Steve Adubato and myself, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The New Jersey Education Association.

Atlantic Health System.

Rowan University.

PSEG Foundation.

Valley Bank.

The Burke Foundation The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

The Fund for New Jersey.

And by NJ Transit.

Promotional support provided by Meadowlands Media.

And by BestofNJ.com.

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