Mrs. Elaine Milsark is a 5th grade teacher at Covenant Christian School.
What makes a great teacher?
“You have to have a love for your students…” Elaine Milsark, a veteran educator with a career spanning 40 years, two states, various educational models, every single grade imaginable, and just about every position within a school, “That’s really what it boils down to. You need to have classroom management. You have to have organization. But if you don’t love those students, and love what they could be… if you can’t see that, I don’t know if you can really be effective.” Mrs. Milsark now stands at the helm of the 5th-grade class. “My father was a shipbuilder,” she told me while her class built ships out of milk cartons, “so this project may have felt daunting at first but what a sweet nod to my own heritage as my students really experienced Pedro’s Journal by Pam Conrad.
Have you been in Christian schools for all of your years?
“I started in a Christian school for two years. I took two years off, then went back and taught at the public school system in Orlando for five years. I stayed at home when our children were tiny, but since then, I have been in Christian schools. When we moved back to be near family after a series of lost loved ones, we stepped out in faith and moved here. I did not know of Covenant, but my nephews had attended. I knew next to nothing about the classical Christian model of education, but after meeting with Mr. Sabo, I felt drawn to the community.
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What is your favorite grade to teach?
My sweet spot is 5th through 8th. I would have a hard time choosing between 5th and 6th because I do love them both. I love the history and science of both. The people who are in the hardest time, well, it was the hardest time in my life anyway. I really do try to see in them ‘what are you going to be when you grow up. What kind of mom will you be? What kind of manager will you be? What kind of coworker will you be?’ And then I work to move them toward that, you know, a positive picture of that.”
Is there any job within education that you have not done?
“I’ve done plumbing, painted, moved chairs… cleaned the occasional bathroom. I did some landscaping at one school. They are small Christian schools, so you do what has to be done.”
What advice would you offer if you could speak to a college graduating class of educators?
“Put your oxygen mask on first, take care of your heart and mind first, or you can’t continue to pour into these lives. In teaching, but especially in a Christian school where there is one first-grade and one second-grade, you can begin to feel lonely and isolated. But that’s why the training and conferences, the continuing education, the staff workshops, they are so important. You can take a breath and look around to see that you are not alone. There is a great movement of people who want their children educated in a Biblical way. I would say to those fresh graduates, tap into those groups.”
What is your favorite book of all time, your least favorite, and what is next on your list?
Hawaii by James A. Michener was difficult for me as an eleventh-grade student. I felt it was so thick and deep which was painfully obvious in the book report I tried to fluff my way through. I fall in love with many books, but probably the best book I’ve read is “Gentle and Lowly” by Dane Ortlund, about Jesus being our Good Shepherd. As for what is next, I do have a stack waiting, but teaching 5th grade this year; honestly, it is the next novel in the class.
Is there a scripture you feel is your home base or something that grounds you?
Psalm 139 says, “You are familiar with all of my ways.” I pray this every year as new students enter my classroom; I don’t know them all. I don’t know if you were here for Hurricane Michael. I don’t know who moved and who had a baby brother recently. But God knows. So, I always pray that He will give me insight.
Can you share a memorable moment when you felt proud to be part of the Covenant Christian School mission?
“Every single time we stand and sing ‘By Faith.’ I know gymnasiums have the worst acoustics of any architectural structure. Still, when we fill our gym with that song or with the Doxology, I don’t believe it could be prettier in Westminster Abbey. But also, I came to Covenant at a time of heartbreak, and then all of the grief came. So to share that time, to help walk through that grief, even though I didn’t know the ladies well at all… the way that was handled, I knew this was a sweet and precious community to be part of.”
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