Claudia Mingin is a Huntington-Lifer
There’s never really been a time when Claudia Mingin wasn’t involved in some way or another with the Huntington School District. First as a student and since 1975 as a teacher, she’s a lifer and proud of it.
A first grade teacher at Flower Hill Primary School, Mrs. Mingin adores her job and the community she has long called home. “I hope my students leave my class as caring and responsible citizens who are curious and have a voracious appetite for life-long learning,” she said. “I feel very fortunate to live and work in Huntington and to have a career I love. I have met so many children and their families throughout my career and love to see them around town as they grow up.”
Mrs. Mingin’s own childhood was spent here in Huntington. She attended Roosevelt Elementary School, which was located on Lowndes Avenue not far from the plot of land on which today’s Jack Abrams Intermediate School stands. When Jefferson Elementary School opened, she was shifted to that building and later graduated from Huntington High School with the Class of 1971.
It was at Elmira College in upstate New York that Mrs. Mingin earned a BA degree in elementary education and psychology before returning to Huntington in 1975 to work as a substitute teacher. It was while subbing that she met her husband-to-be, Greg, who was a physical education teacher in the district.
Hired in 1978
Jefferson Principal Philip Nardone hired Mrs. Mingin in 1978 as a kindergarten teacher. She later taught kindergarten at Washington School under then Principal Olga Smith before transferring to Southdown School in 1985 where she toiled in kindergarten and first grade classrooms for 12 years.
“By then I had two children, Ryan and Dustin who attended Southdown for grades K-6,” she said. “It was very convenient to have them at the same school! Southdown was like our second home.”
Around the same time Mrs. Mingin was also pursuing a master’s degree in early childhood education at Adelphi University. When the district reconfigured its elementary schools, she followed her principal at the time, Steven Furrey, and her colleagues to Flower Hill School, which she has called home ever since.
Always wanting to improve, she said the district has provided her with a variety of interesting and valuable professional development opportunities over the years including “Schools Attuned,” Response-to Intervention and curriculum mapping training. Mrs. Mingin obtained ESL certification when the school district sent a cohort of teachers to St. John’s University in an effort to help classroom faculty members to better meet the needs of ESL students.
Career Highlight
“The highlight of my academic career was going through the literacy collaborative training through Lesley College and becoming a literacy coordinator beginning in 2003,” she said. “This year long initial training brought together in an organized way, many of the techniques and approaches to teaching reading and writing that I was interested in and in which I had dabbled. This training helped me to become a better and more reflective teacher and better able to meet students’ needs.”
She spent five years as Flower Hill’s literacy coordinator, teaching first grade literacy during block times each morning and sharing what she had learned and coaching colleagues in the afternoon while a different teacher taught math and science lessons.
“As a seasoned teacher who had seen many programs come and go, I thought this initiative was a wonderful way to collaborate and share best practices and to create a unified approach to educating our students,” Mrs. Mingin said.
When budget constraints led to the elimination of the literacy collaborative model, and Mrs. Mingin was about to return to her regular first grade classroom, Flower Hill Principal Marlon Small asked her to consider a new assignment. “I worked for a year out of the classroom as Flower Hill’s instructional support liaison,” she said. “This was also an interesting position where I was able to assist children who were at-risk and also provide support to their teachers.” When the district eliminated the ISL positions, too, she returned to the first grade level and hit the ground running.
Makes Learning Exciting
“Basically in my classroom I work very hard to be prepared and make learning exciting and interesting with lots of hands-on learning projects and experiences,” Mrs. Mingin said. “I like to try new things but also have some projects I traditionally work on with my students.”
One of those annual initiatives involves tapping trees with students to make maple syrup and taking “leaf walks” each fall. “I often plant gardens with my classes and will be part of the new outdoor education science gardens Huntington is starting this spring,” Mrs. Mingin said. “I love children's literature and make it a point to read at least two books every day, many of which cover science and social studies topics. We make ‘passports’ and read our way around the world, learning about different cultures and traditions and use the ‘Flat Stanley’ books to learn about other geography and other people and places.”
Working in the district as a teacher for parts of five different decades leads to some interesting experiences. For example, Mrs. Mingin said a “personal highlight” has been teaching the son of a former kindergarten student. “During one ‘meet the teacher night’ a face in the group of parents looked very familiar,” she recalled. “I asked the mom if she had me in kindergarten, but she didn't remember, having moved shortly after kindergarten. Unfazed, I searched through my old class photos and found the face I thought was a match and sent it home the next day with her son, Wayne. When she saw the photo, she was shocked I had remembered her after all those years and we were all excited to be ‘connected.’ Wayne McCloud must be in at least high school now so I may soon be on my third generation!”
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