Poland RPCV Denise O'Toole traveled to China last summer on a teacher's study tour and saw many parts of the country
Cony teacher ready for new adventure
Caption: Denise O'Toole sits with a hostess at a Qing Dynasty style restaurant in China. O'Toole has taught at Cony High School for over six years. In February she will leave Maine to teach English at a university in China. PHOTO COURTESY OF DENISE O'TOOLE
|January 28, 2005
BY MICHELLE PRONOVOST
AUGUSTA - Denise O'Toole is ready for an adventure.
The New York native moved to Maine over six years ago and has been teaching at Cony High School ever since. This winter, she will be moving on to work as an English teacher in China.
O'Toole has taught in other areas of the country and internationally. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh with a master's in public policy, O'Toole spent two years in the Peace Corps teaching high school English in Poland. When she returned from Poland, she pursued a master's degree in secondary education at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. There, she taught history and government to freshmen and sophomores at a high school.
After 2 1/2 years in Washington, O'Toole decided to move to Maine. "I wanted a quieter pace of life," she said. "I had visited here a lot because my best friend from the Peace Corps lived in Bath. I always loved Maine."
O'Toole said she liked the idea of living in a state capital because, being a social studies teacher, she saw many opportunities for local tie-ins to classroom activities. Since coming to Cony, O'Toole has taught global insights, civics, current events, college prep government, AP government and other social studies classes.
"I have enjoyed it," O'Toole said. "I love teaching and learning. When a kid thinks he or she can't do something and then all of the sudden has that 'aha' moment, it's great."
Despite her love of teaching Augusta high school kids, O'Toole said she decided it was time to have an adventure and "get a different perspective on things." She traveled to China last summer on a teacher's study tour and saw many parts of the country. The tour was funded by the Freeman Foundation and was run by the Five College Center for East Asian Studies. It is designed to expose teachers to the Asian culture in hope that they will in turn share what they learn with their students.
"This program is to improve teaching and learning about Asia in America, because we don't know much about it," O'Toole said. "Worse, it often seems we aren't interested in knowing."
O'Toole held a presentation about her travels for Cony students on Thursday.
While on her summer trip, O'Toole spoke to a Chinese woman about opportunities for teaching in that country. The woman directed O'Toole to her father-in-law, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is originally from China's Sichuan Province. The professor took O'Toole's resume to China with him on a visit and soon after, she was offered a teaching position. O'Toole will be teaching English to second-year engineering students at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu.
"The Chinese government has started a concerted effort to teach English to students, and millions are now learning it in high schools and universities," she said.
O'Toole plans to only speak English in the classroom, but has been trying to learn to speak Mandarin herself, the language spoken by 70 percent of Chinese people. O'Toole also wants to learn the Chinese written language as it is universal, even where spoken languages differ.
O'Toole said she will spend at least six months in China and could spend up to another year. She is keeping her house in Augusta for now and renting it out. In August, she will come back to Maine for a visit and figure out where to go from there.
"I'm not sure how long I'll stay in China. It could be six months, it could be 18," she said. "I'm going to see where this will take me. I'm not scared, I'm excited."
