January 10, 2009
Being in the classroom ‘chose me,’ says dedicated teacher
By Denise MacLachlan
Herald staff
Susan Chargulaf, a teacher at St. John Vianney School in Rancho Cordova, supervises seventh and eighth grade students in an after-school Advent service project. The students sort donated gifts by age and category, then cut lengths of wrapping paper and ribbon to go with each gift, so that parents from the Rancho Cordova Food Locker may choose gifts to give their children. The students also assembled items for homeless teens identified by WIND Youth Services in Sacramento. Cathy Joyce/Herald photo
Some might think Susan Chargulaf lives at school.
The eighth grade homeroom teacher at St. John Vianney School in Rancho Cordova tries to keep some weekends free to spend with her husband, Bill.
“He’s said we have to have at least one weekend a month with no school sports, no fundraisers, no putting up something in the classroom,” she says, laughing. “I do my best to keep to it.”
Chargulaf loves teaching. She teaches when she provides tech support for the school’s computers and moderates the student council, she said, just as she teaches religion, math and art.
She attends basketball and football games, makes it to team practices when she can’t be at a game, is present all day long at the occasional Sunday fundraising car washes, and spends most weekends shopping for school activities or working on her classroom.
She arrives on campus at 7 a.m. each morning and usually leaves around 5 p.m. That gives her time in the evening to correct homework.
Saturday mornings are reserved for planning the week’s lessons.
When she contemplates how she chose to be a more than full-time Catholic school teacher, Chargulaf laughs.
“Teaching chose me, honestly,” she said. “I would never have thought that I’d be in the classroom. It chose me.”
Chargulaf was a stay-at-home mother when she enrolled her two children at St. John Vianney School in 1985. She volunteered at the school, working at the crab feeds and craft fairs, served as the parents’ club president, and eventually worked part time in the extension program.
“I spent so much time here when my kids were small that people just naturally asked me to help out,” she recalled, “and of course I did.”
She tutored students who needed an extra challenge in math. She helped kids with craft projects. When the school acquired Apple computers, Chargulaf helped troubleshoot program glitches because she had an Apple computer at home.
As a member of a parent committee volunteering to write a grant for a computer lab, Chargulaf ended up writing the successful grant by herself, after first researching how to write a grant. Then she became the computer lab teacher.
“When my children went on to high school, I made a conscious choice to draw back from some of the volunteering on their campus. They needed to be on a campus on their own. And I stayed here,” Chargulaf said.
She had become a full-time teacher.
“I like the middle school age,” Chargulaf said with a smile. Parents often have a hard time with kids when they reach that age, she noted, but she really enjoys them.
“They’re still children, but so many people want them to be adults,” she said. “You have to give them enough independence to make their own decisions, but remember that they’re still innocent in so many ways.”
She doesn’t let them get away with much, though. About discipline, she said, “I’m consistent, but I use humor. You can’t be too serious all the time with them.”
Chargulaf observed that she learned how to be a teacher from the first principal she taught for at St. John Vianney, Stephanie Jones, who is now retired. “I learned everything from her,” Chargulaf said. “My teaching is completely shaped by watching Stephanie with the kids. She’s a master.”
One of the principles she learned from Jones was to keep in touch with the students. “That’s why I go to the games,” she said. “The kids really notice it. They come in and ask whether I saw them at the game.”
She keeps in contact with her students over the summer, too, sending a postcard to check in with them during the long break. When classes reconvene in the fall, the students make posters of what they’ve done over the summer, and sometimes Chargulaf finds her postcard pinned up to the student’s poster. “They’re connecting right back,” she said.
Chargulaf doesn’t intend to teach at a public school, ever.
“I love the Catholic school environment. I also think its best for students,” she said. “I chose it for my own kids. We celebrate Christmas and Easter, and that’s important. We teach our values and we live the values in the life of the school. Kids need that.
“Kids also need community, and this school is a community,” she continued. “It’s like a family. If one person has a problem, we all pitch in and help. There’s a real sense of family here. Students here have friends at this school who will always be part of their life.”
There are drawbacks, Chargulaf admits. “Like all Catholic schools now, St. John Vianney is a commuter school. Kids don’t just walk here from home. So it’s a big deal for some of the families who live far away to come back for evening events.
“And obviously some people can’t afford to send their kids here. It’s become more expensive, and some people who attend Mass here would come if they could,” she said.
Chargulaf has noticed changes in the school families over her more than 20 years on the campus.
“There used to be a lot of moms volunteering in the classroom, but now the moms are at work,” she observed. “I see more grandmothers than I used to.”
The parent volunteers used to help her set up projects and take them down — put away the paints or stack the chairs. Now everyone leaves early to get to work.
But if she plans parent participation events months in advance, parents will take the time off from work to be present. They just need to schedule it with their bosses and co-workers.
“It’s not like it was,” Chargulaf said. “People can’t be spontaneous and hang out to help. But when we schedule it, they’re here. They want to be here.”
