Men's Stories

Hillsborough County resource teacher Ross Anderson knew something big was happening Friday at Van Buren Middle School.

But he had no idea the party -- and a check for $10,000 -- was for him.

It's been seven years working at Kids' Domain Early Learning Centre in Auckland, New Zealand. I have spent three years to qualify in New Zealand as an early childhood educator.

I'm originally from Japan. I have been living in Auckland for 10 years. I like the relaxed life style in New Zealand. And I like working with infants and toddlers here too.

Roberto Reggio, a veteran male early educator drowned under a full moon off Kahala Beach in Hawaii on May 7, 2009.

He was creative, committed, and passionate about the impact he was able to have as a teacher of young children, as a musician, and as a presenter in professional settings. Among his many contributions, Roberto helped to plan, presented at, and wrote about the HAEYC Men in Education Network (M.E.N.) Retreats.

Hawaii Men's Retreat

His former students will tell you that Frank McCourt, who died Sunday, was too attuned to the false note ever to declare, once he had become a huge success as an author, that he missed teaching high school. Even so, he spent three decades as a teacher of English and creative writing in New York City's public schools. And he was the first to say that those years, while depriving him of the time actually to write, were what made a writer out of him. He had long been retired by 1996, when his first book, "Angela's Ashes," was published.

I graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1975. My major was child psychology. I thought I wanted to work with young children, so I took a job in a child care center. After six months, I knew that my place was in an early childhood classroom, so I went back to the University to finish coursework to get a pre-k teaching license from the State of Minnesota.  I have been in the field ever since. Except for four years serving as a center director in the mid 1980s, I have been in an early childhood classroom. In 1988, I was hired by the St. Paul School system in St.