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.

 
Literacy Consulting Specialist in West Hartford, Connecticut
 

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.

  • Fun Facts

    I am a first-generation immigrant kid. My parents came from Belarus in the late 1970s as political refugees. At the time, the first wave of Soviet Jews was leaving the former USSR. My dad tells me that since he was a little boy, his dad always told him to go to America if he ever got the chance. In 2006, my parents took me to their hometown and I visited the local elementary school and had the opportunity to hear from the teachers

  • Fun Facts

    I am an avid knitter! I have picked my needles up again after a 15-year hiatus. Few things relax me more than knitting up a project while listening to an audiobook or podcast (or watching The Real Housewives in the background. Favorite Franchise: Potomac).

  • Fun Facts

    I lived in New York City for 20 years and was a part-time yoga teacher for 10 of them. Teaching yoga was another way to help me practice teaching, helped me gain confidence to work with adults and nudged me to explore new corners of NYC.

  • Fun Facts

    My favorite genre to read is nonfiction. My favorite author is Zadie Smith. My favorite book is Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. My lifelong reading goal to read more science fiction.

  • Fun Facts

    One day, I want to retire in Palm Springs, wear long, flowy caftans and drink lemonade while I sweat in the desert heat.

Literacy Consulting Specialist in West Hartford, Connecticut

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.