There was a time recently when Tammy Aragona sat down at her house in Bridgeport and thought about work. Actually, she thought about her clients.

 

In Tammy Aragona’s case, her clients are students. Her students are roughly 5 years old.

 

Because of that, her thoughts turned to something probably a little unexpected. Aragona, affectionately known for decades now in the school system as Mrs. Aragona, put her educational helmet on and went back to work.

 

As it almost always is for anyone who decides to make their career teaching, it was a labor of love – even if the labor probably would not have happened if not for the COVID-19 Pandemic. Aragona wrote her students a poem she titled “A note from your teacher.”

 

You can read it by clicking HERE. The words certainly are important, but to me seeing what an educator of more than 30 years with 22 years at Big Elm Elementary in Harrison County as a Kindergarten teacher still had left in them to give was even more important.

 

Tammy Aragona is like all the teachers I see in Bridgeport, Harrison County, throughout the state and beyond. She just does not go to work, she lives her job because she knows the value in what she does is not just life-changing, but permanent.

 

“I just sat down and wrote the poem and it came after I had bought my students a little book called ‘I Wish You More’ that talks about how you wish more for them,” said Aragona. “I just felt like I didn’t get to say that. There were a lot of things you know you’ll have a chance to say and this year myself and so many others didn’t have that chance.

 

“(My husband) Lou made copies of the poem,” she continued. “I mailed it out with their Kindergarten certificates. It was a different way to end it, but I felt like I needed to do it.”

 

While most teachers will tell you each year brings something new, I can’t imagine what each year as a Kindergarten teacher brings. It’s the first step in the educational process and one that yours truly remembers for throwing up either on the way to school or in school for months leading to early social distancing by those in class with me.

 

“Kindergarten is so rewarding,” she said. “They come in at so many levels. Some know their letters; some know sounds, and some are reading. Then some have never held a pencil before or cut with a pair of scissors.

 

“There’s a sense of fulfillment watching that child who couldn’t read leave Kindergarten knowing how to read,” she continued. “I don’t think many times they realize just how much they learn and accomplish. I love every part of it.”

 

When the format changed and changed from actual classroom teaching to an online setting, it was more than just rough for many on the teaching front. It was tough emotionally.

 

“The main thing you missed the most was the direct contact because a child knows when you’re helping when you’re that close. It’s important being right there with them and guiding them through the lessons even if it needed to be one on one,” Aragona said. “It’s hard to replicate that with five-year-olds on the internet. It makes it more difficult.”

 

To help, Aragona often did Face Time individually. She used Google Duo or any way she could connect with students, parents, guardians, and grandparents to get as much face to face time as possible.

 

“It put a lot of pressure on those at home with the children, and I felt for them as I was trying to adjust myself. A lot of times I would do a video of how I would do things in the classroom to help them to try and do it the same way in which the kids were used to,” said Aragona. “There are ways to sound out words, adding and subtracting and how to teach reading that were asked of people who never had to do this before, and I tried to help in any way I could.”

 

Yet as the new normal of teaching online for the remainder of the year went into place and eventually became permanent for the close of the 2019-20 school year, she realized like so many others that students weren’t going to get to enjoy what every class prior to this one were able to take part in.

 

“There are so many springtime activities we normally do. At Big Elm, the big event is the Mother’s Day Tea where they sing to the moms, make crafts, and have a big celebration,” said Aragona. “We didn’t get to do that, or our field trips or our little luau we have when we do a unit on the ocean … You just expect it’s going to happen and when it doesn’t it weighs on you.”

 

What weighed on Aragona the most is what weighs on so many educators as their summer break is underway amidst the uncertainty of what an August return may look like.

 

“We didn’t get to say goodbye to each other. The kids didn’t get to say goodbye to their friends,” she said. “Sometimes they cry when they leave, and I cry too. For a long time, I’ve had those children most of the day and often more than they spend time with their parents. You grow close to them as if they were your own.”

 

Tammy Aragona knows the feeling because she has her own. Her and husband Louis are the parents of Louis Jr. and Nick. They also play parents to Phillip the cat.

 

“The boys are no longer at home, but Lou has been so supportive,” she said. “He’s seen me facetiming. He’s seen the struggles. He’s seen the small lesson plans that take a large amount of time. He’s also seen me still enjoying what I do in a setting I never expected. There were a lot of firsts this year.”

 

Including a heartfelt poem I am sure her students will keep for years to come. And those firsts she faced this year reassured her of something else – she would not want to do anything else with her life.

 

“As difficult as it’s been at times, this let me know I absolutely made the right decision to teach. I wouldn’t have it any other way,” said Aragona.

 

Her students probably would not want anyone else to help shape their futures. The same, I say with full confidence, can be said about most in her profession.

 

They write poems. The cry. They laugh. They plow the road to the future. They care.

 

Throughout it all, they do what they do best. They teach. Bridgeport’s Tammy Aragona is a perfect example of that.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Tammy Aragona with one of her students at Big Elm Elementary, while in the third photo one of her students from this year is showing his excitement with the book he received from her. In the second photo, Tammy and Lou Aragona are shown with their sons Louis II and Nick. In the bottom picture, Tammy Aragona shows a sign her students were able to see to show how she's feeling about being away from them in the classroom setting. Photos courtesy of the Aragona family.