Most of us can remember our favorite teacher. From the first day of school to lifelong learning opportunities, teachers have the unique position to help students overcome challenges, find purpose, and nurture personal growth. With Teacher Appreciation Week approaching — it occurs during the first full week of May each year — we celebrate previous, current, and future teachers for their hard work in the classroom and community.

One educator who embraces creativity, patience, and compassion is Rebecca Sossai — a graduate student in the Literacy and Language program at Miami University. Preparing students to become literacy leaders and reading specialists in K-12 schools, the Master of Education in Literacy and Language program addresses the needs of diverse learners, from early readers to multilingual learners.

Originally from Miami, Florida, Sossai earned her undergraduate degree in elementary education in 2024 before coming to Miami University. Looking to broaden her expertise in graduate school, she mentions, “My program and research is in the area of critical literacy and education. So, dealing with integrating literacy in different content areas, not just in the traditional language arts subject areas. I have always been very big into reading and writing, and my previous teaching experience was in math and science. I was really interested in being able to incorporate my love of reading into different subject areas that I may teach in the future.”

Building skills through her program

Seeing that children often have difficulty with reading comprehension, Sossai recognizes the value of her graduate program. She mentions, “It’s a really great opportunity to strengthen my skills and be able to bring this knowledge into a classroom where kids can strengthen their fluency in reading and writing.”

 “Upon coming to Miami and starting my courses, I realized how important it is to teach children — even from a young age — how important it is to bring in aspects of social justice and more relevant local community issues to make their learning more engaging and more relevant to their everyday lives,” she adds.

Sossai really appreciates the different formats and flexibility that the Literacy and Language program offers. “I chose Miami for grad school because I had heard very strong things about their education program specifically. My program is very hybrid, very flexible, and it's something that working teachers are able to participate in.”

In addition to earning teaching experience during her undergraduate studies, Sossai has served as a substitute teacher for Mason City Schools since last fall. She says, “My favorite part about teaching would definitely have to be the connections that you make with your students. I worked with fifth graders — so they're about 10, 11 years old. They are just so funny and such wonderful little humans. And they have so much love to give you.”

She continues, “It's been so wonderful to be able to form connections and relationships with these kids and just give them a place outside of their home that they feel as comfortable and as safe as they would with their parents — or even in cases where they don't have that safe haven, that they can come to my classroom and know that they have somebody that cares about them, that wants the best for them, and is always their biggest fan.”

Collaborating and researching during graduate school

At Miami, Sossai has immersed herself into her readings and classes, built strong connections with her professors, and embraced research opportunities. “My grad school experience has helped me prepare for the area of research. I've been able to get more experience with what it's like to conduct research, to write literature reviews, and to dive into the area of academia more than I previously had,” she said.

Since educators work with a lot of different people in their field, Sossai values that she’s met and worked with so many groups during her graduate experience. She mentions, “I work in the graduate assistant office. So, I've been able to interact with a lot of people who are in other education master programs, but that all kind of work together with the same professors. We've built a camaraderie, and we've built a friendship, even being in different programs.”

 She adds, “I love seeing all of the connections between professors — like all of the professors work together and seem close and have relationships outside of the workplace, which is not something that I had experienced previously. It makes it much more engaging to be able to collaborate with them and work with them on research.”

Sossai has found that professors at Miami have been great resources, and she recognizes the importance of their approachability. She says, “They're very open to communication and easy to meet with and to talk to. I've been able to develop really great relationships where they're not only interested in what I'm doing for them as a GA or what I'm doing for them as a student — but they're interested in my life and how they can help me advance in my goals in education.”

Growing as a leader

As a graduate assistant, Sossai has often collaborated with Katherine Batchelor, associate professor of Teaching, Curriculum, and Educational Inquiry — which has broadened Sossai’s teaching experience. “I get to collaborate a lot with her undergraduate students that she's working with. That's been very interesting. I've gotten to help teach some of her classes, which is really cool, and we're doing some research workshops with undergraduate students as well,” Sossai said. “So, I've gotten to lead book talks with them. I've gotten to lead different lessons. Getting that experience of teaching in a higher academic setting has been really awesome.”

Sossai adds, “Being pushed out of my comfort zone into an opportunity where I could share my experiences, my advice, and a different perspective — as someone who's coming from out of state and came from a different educational background — was a very enriching and enlightening process. It helped me see that I'm capable of much more than I thought.” 

Building these important connections has helped Sossai work toward being published in the field of education at an early stage in her career. She says, “Dr. Batchelor is always offering to help me in any specific areas of research that I'm interested in. Dr. Ann Haley MacKenzie has always been so great about having me write with her on her research and giving me opportunities to collaborate with her.”

Providing advice to those considering Miami for graduate school

“If I had to give advice to anybody considering Miami, I would say that it's such a wonderful decision to make. Miami has so much to offer at a graduate level. I can attest to how strong their graduate programs are and the amount of support and just pure passion that the professors have for their students and for what they're doing,” Sossai said. “It's been such a wonderful experience to see how much Miami cares about their students and about the quality of education that they offer to their prospective students and current students.”

She adds, “As someone who came from out of state — and it's a very big jump to come from Miami, Florida, to Miami of Ohio — they create such a welcoming environment and offer so many outside organizations and ways to get involved that you don't really feel alone and you don't really feel like it's as big of a scary change as it should be. It was a much less intimidating process than I thought it was going to be going into it. And I'm so grateful for being so welcomed into the Miami community like I was.”

Preparing for the future

Sossai is set to earn her master’s degree this spring and is ready to embrace a teaching career. She mentions, “After I graduate, I plan to enter the teaching field, hopefully in a higher elementary position in fourth or fifth grade. I really loved the little experience that I had in math and science, but since completing my program in Literacy and Language, I feel like I'm more equipped to also handle something in the reading and writing area as well — so I'm kind of open to it all.”

She continues, “In the future, I'm really interested in going back and pursuing my Ph.D. — hopefully at Miami as well — and I'm interested in teaching at a collegiate level. I've really loved the experience Miami has given me with teaching undergraduate courses, and I think that's definitely something that I'd be interested in doing in the future.”

 “Because of Miami, I feel much more equipped to go into my profession. I have such a stronger background in the field of education and of literacy and language. And I feel like I can bring so much more to the table now than I could just a few months prior before I had started my grad program at Miami,” Sossai said.

So, for today’s assignment: Thank a teacher — like Sossai — for their hard work inside and outside of the classroom and think about the impact that your favorite teacher had on you.