Hello my name is Mercy C. Nyman. I have been in education for over 30 years… I was in the classroom for 19 years and have been in administration ever since. I have had an array of experiences within my career. I am bilingual and bicultural, [Spanish/English], I even know a bit of Hebrew!
I knew I wanted to become a teacher since I was 4 years old. This was the determining factor… On the first day of kindergarten, I was forgotten (this was part of the City of Miami Recreational Parks, since kindergarten was not part of the school system yet…) My birthday is in November and they did not have the August cut off back then, so off I went to my first day of school. My parents had arrived from Cuba in the late 1950’s, although I was born in the states; I was not fluent in English, probably because my home language was Spanish only. I had a wonderful day and the end of the day came too fast! However, no one came to pick me up… I was so scared, I saw all the other children leave and began to get scared when I saw the TEACHER leave too… I was left alone and very afraid… I saw no one that could help me except a “park bum” that was lying down on a bench… I went to him and told him in my broken English if he would please walk me home… I knew where I lived but could not cross the road by myself… He got up and walked me home… There was no one at my home so I asked him to please walk me to my aunt’s house a couple of blocks further… So he did… By this time my family realized their mistake and was very scared too… My grandmother saw me approach with this bum and she started hitting him with a broom while I was trying to explain… Well, needless to say, she stopped and listened to what I was saying… Later my dad gave him some money to thank him! So why would such a terrible experience prompt me to become of teacher? Simple, at that age I realized I would never leave a child behind! (Unlike Bush’s policy of No Child Left Behind)
So there it is, something that could have made me fear and hate school forever, made me resilient and strong enough to know I would grow up and make a difference.
I graduated High School when I was 16 years old and had my Bachelors in Elementary Education by the age of 20… I quickly continued to study and received my first Masters Degree in Early Childhood education when I was 21.
I started teaching 7th grade Geography in an all boy Catholic school in Miami for 6 years. I later moved to the Florida Keys where I taught for the public school system for 7 years as a kindergarten teacher, safe and drug free school’s county coordinator, and 5th grade.
I returned to Miami and began teaching in a secular private school as a kindergarten teacher again for another 2 years. I left that school and began my service at a Jewish School for 2 years in the capacity of a grouping specialist. I was responsible to assess all 1st graders and group them according to their abilities. After 9/11 enrollment decreased and they did away with all the specialist positions…
I taught at Juvenile detention facility for a couple of months and decided to leave the classroom then.
The School Readiness Coalition in Miami to spear head a 1.3 million dollar grant that would be implemented in 32 childcare centers in South Florida recruited me. This was a 17 month grant-position. I was in charge of all the training, hiring, curriculum design, and every aspect of the grant. When it was over, so was my position. So I was picked up by a software company to be their in-house trainer. At this point I had started my own consulting business and performed trainings on such topics as literacy, discipline, oral language development, and parenting skills among others…
After the above experiences, I felt it to be “safer” if I returned to the classroom, 4 years of being out, caused fear and chaos on job security. I suppose I was wrong again… I was asked to be the principal for one of the campus of the school’s I was applying to teach at. That position prompted me to pursue a degree in leadership and decided that after successfully paying for my daughter’s pre-paid college in Florida, I would now pay for my own.
I must inform you this Ph.D is being pursued after 3 masters degree. I completed my original MA in Early Childhood Education with Nova University in Dec. 1990, my MA in Leadership and Supervision with UOP Feb. 2007, and my MA in Curriculum and Instruction again with UOP on Sept 2007. I suppose there is something to be said about following your dreams. A Ph.D was always my ultimate dream and after taking a break and caring for my father who quickly became sick and passed at age 61, I am now ready to dream that dream and make it a reality. Ironically, my daughter and I will be graduating at the same time! What a legacy and lesson for her.
I am currently the principal at Family Christian Center School in Clermont, Florida and listen carefully to God’s voice and what He has in store for me.
In my spare time I enjoy cooking, reading, building jigsaw puzzles, and spending time with my daughter and husband. I am also a belly dancer for fun! I am happy to be here and I am looking forward to working with all of you.