Boothbay Region High School bids farewell to Barbara Greenstone, one of its most beloved teachers. Greenstone has taught at BRHS for four and a half years as a technology integrator, and has been key in bridging English, humanities and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) classes, providing insight to materials and approaches to a variety of courses and teachers.

“Mrs. Greenstone is always willing to help anyone,” said junior Sierra Murray. “She’s friendly and personable even if she doesn’t know you.” Murray added, it can be tough to find Greenstone in her office because she is always busy helping someone, but she still manages to be able to help. “At any given time, she could be working with a group of teachers, three students, fixing an iPad, and still have time to help.”

“Barbara is a consummate, professional educator,” said BRHS English teacher Mark Gorey.  “I would describe her as a teacher's teacher.”

Greenstone was instrumental during the 10 years she worked on the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) which brought technology into the classroom through laptops and tablets. She frequently attends conferences in technology, submits scholarly contributions to online publications and instructs faculty on the operation of new applications compatible with the laptops and tablets students use.

A common point that comes up is that Greenstone is through and through a kind and helpful person.

“Any time that I have asked for her assistance or advice, she is on top of it immediately,” said BRHS STEM teacher Chip Schwehm. “I have grown so much as a teacher because of my work with Barbara.

“I had the honor of developing and teaching a course with Barbara: Making and Marketing,” Schwehm said. “It’s a course that is a departure from the typical curriculum in high school because it is experiential in nature and features descriptive feedback rather than traditional grades. The course was somewhat of a risk for us both, but it was very successful, and has been recognized for its innovative nature beyond BRHS and it was through this experience that I learned Barbara is really a teacher at heart.”

Murray said the class was her favorite class with Greenstone. “We built a company from the ground up going through the entire process. I was on the marketing team with Mrs. Greenstone as my advisor. She was always giving us new ideas and helping our visions come to fruition. After the class was over, I attended the Moose Tech conference with both the teachers from the class. I got to collaborate with Mrs. Greenstone on a presentation and she helped me every step of the way. She has taught me new skills that I continue to use today.”

“Barbara has helped me repeatedly this year, and in past years, made our school-wide debates a success,” said Gorey. “She first introduced to me, at the beginning of this school year, to a book which became a cornerstone text for my AP Language students' first semester focus on media, civil discourse, and informed citizenship.”

Gorey said Greenstone helped put together the application for his National Board Certification, which included much planning, technical execution and rounding up a group of busy teachers to review his work. “I am profoundly grateful to Barbara for her enlightened professionalism. I know I, and others here at BRHS, will miss her.”

Tanya Hammond, BRHS English teacher, also had the pleasure of working closely with Greenstone co-teaching a course called Digital Literacy, designed to help students develop their writing, reading and research skills while maintaining all the aspects of a good digital citizen.

“She has created instructions for teachers and students, websites to host their projects, even converted and uploaded their work – all to facilitate the process for time-strapped and less tech-capable people,” said Hammond. “She comes to the rescue when things aren’t working right and always has a can-do attitude. Without Barbara, many of our prized units and projects just wouldn’t be happening.

“Continuing in that vein," said Hammond, "Barbara has offered so much more than tech integration. She is incredibly knowledgeable about instructional approaches, assessment, literacy, and learning styles — honestly, I feel I have learned more about good teaching from our discussions and working alongside her than I did in my teacher training program.”

When it comes to helping others, “Barbara meets people where they are,” Hammond said. “She is about using technology as a tool, not about pushing technology at the expense of education.” Hammond also points out Greenstone’s personal blog on teaching called ‘Tech Tonic’, “a wonderful resource to teachers to supplement the professional development sessions she has offered.”

Greenstone’s ability to motivate and to achieve so much has led to a number of resources and accomplishments for faculty and students alike: The Summer Tech Institute was designed for teachers to learn new skills and to bounce new ideas off of one another; BRHS has been named an “Apple Distinguished School” twice during Greenstone’s tenure; and she pushed for a National Grammar Day and a Poem In Your Pocket Day.

When asked about Greenstone’s departure, the air grows somber. “Other students are having a similar response as I did,” Murray said. "'Wait, she’s leaving?! What do we do now?!’— I really feel that the school will suffer a huge loss after Mrs. Greenstone has seen her last day at BRHS.”

Gorey notes that Greenstone’s work has been so significant that despite a decline in enrollment for the next school year, he and four other teachers have been pushing for the school committee to find a replacement.

“The school committee stated that they do intend to find a replacement. That said, replacing Barbara's rare combination of qualities will be difficult,” said Gorey.

Hammond added, “We’re always happy for a colleague who’s retiring, but we are concerned, dare I say, worried, that we will not be able to find another who, as Barbara did, offers so much more than what the job description entails. Barbara has conducted herself with extreme professionalism, good nature, and tirelessness, and has become a good friend to many of us.”

One thing is for sure — Greenstone has touched the lives of many in the BRHS community and will be sorely missed by all.

She and her husband decided it was time, so that they could be together more often and visit family more. “We’ll do more traveling while we can still get around. We’re planning to spend several weeks in Europe in November. We’re both passionate about music and theater and now we’ll have more time for that, too. One of my colleagues keeps saying I should write a book. You never know. I might surprise myself and do that.”

Greenstone said her immediate plans after retirement will hardly find her sitting still. “I may spend the first few weeks just reading piles of fiction that I never seem to have time for when I’m working,” she said. “But I also have obligations to some professional organizations that I’ve worked with for years, and I’ve made a commitment to present at some conferences in the fall, so I’ll stay busy. It’s not as easy to walk away from teaching as one might think.”

When asked what it has been like to work at BRHS, Greenstone said it could not have been a better job to end her career. “I have been given the freedom and flexibility to be creative and innovative and to try new things,” she said. “During my time at the Maine Learning Technology Initiative I led workshops and offered other professional development opportunities, but I seldom got to work with kids and I missed it. My time here allowed me to reconnect and work directly with students, and that has been a joy.”

Regarding the teachers and students who are at a loss as to how they will continue without her expertise, compassion and fervor, Greenstone said: “I appreciate the sentiment, but I think the teachers and students will be fine without me. I always learn as much from my teaching partners as they learn from me and I especially enjoyed working with and learning from the students. The new technology integrator will be joining a great tech team here who will help make it a smooth transition, and I’ll stay in touch.”

“I really appreciate the teachers who invited me into their classrooms, not just to support them in their use of technology, but to discuss teaching and learning in general. I have thoroughly enjoyed working here and I’ll be sad to leave.”