About Mrs. Bonczkowski
My husband Mark, myself and sons - Owen and Luke
Hayner Barn ~ Halfmoon, NY
*Courtesy of Kerensa Rybak Photography*
I was born and raised in upstate New York - about a half an hour for the Canadian border near Plattsburgh with my parents and two younger sisters. After graduating from Saranac Central Schools, I attended Plattsburgh State University and received my BS in Special Education/Elementary Education. It was my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Dorothy Downey from Cadyville Elementary, who inspired me to follow this path in my educational career. She showed me first hand how to motivate and excite your students to learn more than just what is in a book, but in the world around us. When I think back on my own educational experience, I have so many wonderful memories of Mrs. Downey's class - from class plays to even hand stitching a quilt in a quilting bee. What I gained from this amazing teacher is that the sky's the limit when it comes to learning about our past and how vital it is in shaping our future. I can't thank her enough this gift! I just hope that as I continue to teach, I can help instill these values and attitudes in my own students.
While at Plattsburgh State, I was very active in student life as a Resident Advisor, Student Ambassador, and more. I even enjoyed a great summer as a Tutor-Counselor for the Upward Bound Program working with high school students in their summer residential program. One of the highlights that summer was taking over 100 high school students to New York City for an entire week - it was exhausting but so much fun! I then finished my experience at Plattsburgh student teaching at both Pyramid's Pediatric Early Intervention Services and Ausable Elementary in the Spring of 2000. Working with younger students taught me so much about how child grows and develops in order to lay a strong foundation for their educational future to make them lifelong learners.
Although this chapter in my life was ending, I was excited about the new one just beginning. I then went on to pursue my Master's Degree in Special Education from the University at Albany right after graduation. While at Albany, I was fortunate enough to intern at Niskayuna's Summer Literacy Program working with 1st grade students, Niskayuna High School working with 9th graders and Bright Beginnings in Troy, NY working with preschool students. Upon graduation from UAlbany, I got my first teaching job at Duanesburg Central Schools where I got to work at both the middle school and high school levels. I had a great experience with some amazing faculty, students and families while there. It was at Duanesburg though that I truly developed my love of teaching at the middle level.
With circumstances being what they may, I was fortunate enough to return to Niskayuna just two years later at Iroquois Middle School as a Special Education Teacher. I had the opportunity to work with students in both the resource room and in some of their content area classes to focus on strategy instruction while meeting grade-level expectations. However, the one thing that I truly loved concentrating on was literacy while working with students and other staff as a part of my job. With literacy being such an important part of middle school programming, I decided to go back to the University at Albany just a few years later to get a Master's Degree in Literacy for Grades 5-12. Young Adult Literature is a passion of mine and I love the excitement in my students' conversations about what they read. With literacy encompassing so much of what middle school students encounter both in and out of school, I love being able to infuse strategies and instruction to help them develop their skills in this area. I just completed my 12th year here at Niskayuna as a Special Education Teacher and couldn't be happier!
For the 2015-2016 school year, I was excited to start a new chapter in my career however. I had the wonderful opportunity to work on the 6-7 Team as a 6th Grade Reading teacher. I also had the privilege that year of being an Inclusion AIS Reading Teacher with Mrs. Farina & Mrs. Smaus in 7th grade and Mr. Adamo & Mr. Jesep in 8th grade. I was in their classes on an every other day basis helping to deliver reading strategy instruction to students in those classes. This was such a great way to see and experience the continuum of services we have at the middle level for English and reading. However, during the 2016-2018 school year, I was excited to be able to work solely in 6th grade as a 6th grade Reading Teacher and I have been doing this ever since. Mrs. Smaus and myself have a lot of wonderful activities and units planned for our students on Team Oneida to complement our two programs and are eager to share these with you soon!
I now live in Clifton Park, NY with my husband Mark, our sons Luke and Owen and our crazy yellow lab Bailey. You will quickly find how important my family is to me as I am sure your family is to you. For that reason, I am always available to meet and discuss your child's strengths/needs in our programs - it is my privilege to be able to work with your child here at Iroquois. Know how much I look forward to working together this year and please don't be shy to reach out to me if needed! We are in this together as a school family and I want to help make this for a smooth transition so students can experience success!
"The more that you read, the more things you will know.The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."~Dr. Seuss