Hello! I'm your Literacy Consulting Specialist, Barb Golub.
I have a vivid memory from second grade, where Mrs. Darrow had to take a phone call in the hallway. She looked at all of the raised hands and chose ME to continue the read aloud while she took the call. That moment was my call to teaching.
Under the tutelage of Dr. Marjorie Seigel and Dr. Celia Oyler, I received my Master's Degree in Curriculum & Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University, after which I got my first job as one half of a second-grade teaching team (then called Collaborative Team Teaching) at PS 158 in Manhattan, New York.
While in the classroom, I developed a passion for education policy, and was accepted into the Teachers Network Leadership Institute, where I was given a grant to do action research in my classroom.
My topic of study was how to create healthy relationships with caregivers, in order to deepen student engagement in the classroom. As a New York City public school teacher, I was committed to supporting my children at home, as well as in my classroom.
While teaching second grade, I developed a love for research—this time around the ways our brains work to learn how to read and write. When I transitioned to becoming a fifth grade teacher, I took this love of research with me.
My colleagues and I worked to ground our upper grade literacy instruction in research, thinking critically about current practices and how they aligned with what science was telling us. This led me to my career as a literacy consultant, working for New York City public schools.
This is when my commitment to teachers started.
Upon my return to New York City, I picked my consulting career up where I left it, and, after nearly 20 years away from my hometown, the pandemic has brought me back. I make my home in West Hartford, CT, where I live with my husband, our two daughters, my stepdaughter, our three fish, our two hermit crabs, and our many, many plants.
After several years consulting, I was curious to learn how literacy was taught around the world, so I accepted a position as Literacy Coordinator at Taipei American School in Taipei, Taiwan. This work gave me the opportunity to support one buidling over time and focus my own growth as a literacy coach. While in Taiwan, I worked with coaches across the region to establish a think tank for literacy leaders across Asia.