Henrico's Top Teachers – Megan Vrolyk, Dumbarton Elementary School, fifth grade

Megan Vrolyk is known as the Mary Poppins of Dumbarton Elementary School. She may not fly using an umbrella or slide down chimneys, but there is something almost magical and “practically perfect” about her warm presence and gentle authority, according to those who know her.

Vrolyk has been teaching fifth grade at Dumbarton for the past 10 years. During her teaching career, she has learned that making her classroom a safe, calm environment likely is the most important thing she can do for her students as a teacher.

“I want to make sure that they feel connected to me and also to their classmates, because if they're more comfortable, they're going to be more likely to share, to participate, to answer questions,” Vrolyk said. “So really, just a sense of belonging and family and just making sure that they feel safe.”

And not only is it important for her fifth-graders to feel physically safe, but also emotionally safe – knowing that no one is going to yell at them for making a mistake, or shame them for getting an answer wrong. Vrolyk often makes little mistakes on purpose in front of the class, like spelling a word wrong or adding up numbers incorrectly, just to show her students that yes, grown-ups make mistakes too.

“I think celebrating mistakes is really important. If a student raises their hand to answer and they say something wrong, it’s never, ‘Why would you say that?’ It’s always, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so glad that you were brave enough to answer that,’” she said. “Just understanding that you’re going to get things wrong and that’s how you learn.”

Safety and comfort are especially important at Dumbarton Elementary, where more than half of the student population are English learners – the highest percentage at any Henrico elementary school. Many students are also newcomers, meaning not only are they new to the language but also to the school, the country, and the culture.

With such an abundance of newness, a newcomer’s saving grace can be a friend or classmate who speaks the same language or is from their home country or culture. Vrolyk always works to find each of her new students a first point of connection, even if it means finding a student outside of her class that they can sit at lunch with or play with at recess.

“They can be so scared and so shy, so getting them comfortable with a peer first can encourage them to start speaking up,” she said. “I have one student this year who’s probably said maybe three sentences to me the whole year. And it’s so cute, because she’ll want to tell me something and the other girls that speak her language, they’ll escort her to me and say to her, ‘Tell her, tell her, tell her!’ And then she’ll whisper it in English.”

In her classroom, Vrolyk has a wide range of English learners, from newcomers who don’t speak any English to ESL students who have been at the school since kindergarten, and students from all parts of the world. At Dumbarton alone, about 30 to 40 languages are spoken. And other students in Vrolyk’s class are quick to embrace the diversity.

“If I say we’re getting a new student, the first question they always ask is, ‘do they speak English? What language do they speak?’ So they’re just so open to helping and wanting to help them learn,” she said. “The students teach each other, and it makes them so much more accepting, being around so many different cultures.”

Academics are important, but especially for elementary-schoolers, having a trusted adult who they know cares about them beyond report cards and test scores is just as important. Even outside of school, Vrolyk shows up for her students – at their soccer games, concerts, birthday parties – to show that she doesn’t see them as just another student in her class.

“It’s really important to me that they know I care about them as a whole person,” she said. “It’s important to really take the time. Kids want to know that they’re being listened to. They start opening up more when they know they can trust me.”

Vrolyk finds a way to connect with every child, one parent wrote in a nomination letter, whether they’re just learning English, struggling emotionally, or have exceptional needs.

“She’s all the things a parent hopes and prays for when they send their child to school each day. Her students are successful because she leads with love in the classroom,” the parent wrote. “Her approach is intuitive and natural. She leads her class with laughter and integrity, always putting the safety and emotional well-being of the children first.”

When the parent's own son was struggling with his self confidence, Vrolyk helped him learn to love himself more, the parent said. He may not get A’s on every assignment, but he can now still hold his head up high and see himself as intelligent and worthy.

“If someone told my son that he was smart before her class, he would disagree. But he now proudly describes himself as smart,” the parent wrote. “[Vrolyk] has never given up on him and has loved him through every difficult and frustrating moment when he wanted to give up on himself. She lets him know that even when he makes mistakes at school, he is loved.”

For her students, Vrolyk hopes her classroom can be a safe oasis from whatever else they have going on in life, whether it is problems at home or struggles with their confidence, and where they know that they are loved and appreciated.

“It’s really hard to separate home from school, and I understand that, because even as adults, we have to turn off our home lives and be here and perform. And they have to do the same thing,” Vrolyk said. “I always tell them to be where your feet are. Like right now, your feet are in school. So just letting them know, when you’re here, you’re safe.”