Rachel Manzov G'19

Rachel Manzov always knew she wanted to work in education, and for the past three years she has served as a Severe Special Education Teacher in the Charlton Public Schools. In this role, she modifies general education lesson plans for students to be successful during integration into the general education classroom by planning, organizing, and teaching through small group lessons and 1:1 lessons using ABA methodologies. She also collaborates with occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech language pathologists, and general education teachers for ways to best meet the students’ individual needs.

Graduating from Worcester State College in 2010 with an elementary education major, Rachel served in various long-term substitute positions while continuing her education in the evenings to earn her graduate degree from Worcester State University in 2014 in Elementary Education.  She then began work as a Special Education Instructional Assistant for pre-school students for four years.  In this role, she promoted safe, positive, and supportive learning environment for students, helped to integrate students into regular education classrooms, and helped to facilitate ABA with individual students. Eventually, her principal asked her if she would like to take on the position of Head Teacher for a Severe Special Education Classroom for grades K-1. Rachel was hesitant at first, as this position would require more credentialing and returning to graduate school, but she knew in her heart that this was the professional pathway she wanted to seek.

Rachel began looking for graduate programs in severe special education. As a mother with a young daughter, she was drawn to the on-line/nights/weekend components that Bay Path’s flexible classroom model offered. Once enrolled, she found her professors to be extremely knowledgeable and she appreciated that her classmates were willing to share information with each other to help inform each other’s teaching practices and to share academic goals. “My degree helped me develop professionally as a teacher,” explained Rachel She is grateful to the faculty and staff at Bay Path for making her dreams of becoming a classroom teacher become a reality. In particular, she credits Professor Mary Lou Carey for providing Rachel with insightful feedback to improve her teaching skills.

Rachel loves teaching through sensory activities as it provides the students with opportunities to explore and problem solve using multiple senses (seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, moving and hearing) that helps brain development. Sensory play helps to develop language development, cognitive growth, motor skills, problem-solving skills and develops social skills/interactions, and it can also help calm children that may be upset, feel frustrated or have anxiety. Her students seem to love it, too, as this work helps them to read simple sentences, learn their letters and sounds, overcome behavior difficulties, and learn to engage in conversations and interactions.

Rachel is grateful to Bay Path University for giving her the credential to pursue her dream of becoming a certified Severe Special Education Teacher and was most excited to walk across the stage at graduation to earn her Specialist in Education diploma in May. Congratulations, Rachel!