Hoboken teacher Mark Mautone has helped countless children overcome learning and developmental disorders. But he didn’t fully grasp the importance of his work until his own son was diagnosed with a nine-month speech delay and epileptic seizures.
“As long as I’ve been in special ed,” he said, “as many times as I’ve taught kids, and helped parents as a professional, if you don’t know what to do, you kind of feel helpless.”
Suddenly the parents of the preschool children with autism he specializes in educating at Wallace Elementary School became his own support group, “reminding me that I was the one that had helped them.” Developing a skill like being able to say hello to your mother, Mautone realized, is more than a data point in an assessment.
“I know now, because my son is speech-delayed, that every word he says clearly, I celebrate,” said Mautone.
The parents at Wallace are not the only ones that have recognized the power of Mautone’s work. In a ceremony at the state Department of Education this past Wednesday, Mautone was named the 2014-15 New Jersey Teacher of the Year. The award is the latest and most significant honor he has received for his work as head teacher of the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program for autistic students at Wallace.
Mautone is the first Hoboken teacher ever to be named a state Teacher of the Year.
“You do it because you’re hoping that you’re going to help another child or a family.”—Mark Mautone
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For almost 20 years, Mautone has been working in the field of special education in Hudson and Bergen Counties. He is a graduate of Kean University with a Bachelor of Arts and has a Masters of Arts in ABA from Caldwell College.
For Mautone, just to become a state finalist entailed winning Teacher of the Year competitions on the school, district and county level. Earlier this year, he became the first Hoboken teacher to ever be named Hudson County Teacher of the Year. In addition, Mautone’s work was recognized by a Joint Legislative Resolution from the New Jersey State Senate and General Assembly.
Mautone now becomes eligible for the national Teacher of the Year competition. Winners will be announced in April.
Teaching through tech
According to the Hoboken school district, Mautone uses “ongoing in-depth educational assessments and data analysis” to create individualized educational plans for preschool children on the autism spectrum.
However, it is his use of technology, and particularly iPads, in the classroom that has attracted the attention of teachers in New Jersey and nationwide. Mautone has been incorporating the tablet computers into his curriculum since they were first released in 2010, and he has even developed ITPADD, his own suite of applications designed especially for autism education.
Mautone said the apps allow him to quickly adapt to the educational strategy that will connect with a child. If he is trying to get a student to learn sight words, for example, Mautone can set words to drag and drop, match, appear, disappear, and reappear, working through a range of options until the one that works is found.
Still, Mautone emphasized that technology was only a tool, not the basis for his curriculum.
“Whatever they learn on the iPad, I bring back onto the table,” said Mautone. He said tablets are useful because they offer things like video that attract the attention of children. “We have a different set of learners in general in society because we’re so technology-driven,” he explained, “so you can’t just say, ‘Oh, they’re not learning it traditionally’ and give up.”
Despite the credit he receives for it, Mautone doesn’t see using technology in the classroom as an educational panacea.
“There’s a lot of technology being pushed in the classroom,” he said, “between smart boards, Google Chromebooks, and iPads. So as a teacher you have to be kind of vigilant and understand how you can use each one of these or one of these as an effective tool.”
New responsibilities
As Teacher of the Year, Mautone will receive a six-month sabbatical from his teaching duties at Wallace. From Jan. 5 to June 30 of next year, he will become an employee of the state Department of Education and tour the country attending education conferences, promoting the work of teachers in New Jersey and his own program in Hoboken. Expected engagements include the International Space Camp in Alabama and the ETS Next Steps Conference in Princeton.
Mautone is also responsible for attending workshops and conferences around the state as a “resource on the state of the profession,” according to the NJDOE. Mautone said his “mission is to ensure that every child with autism is in a high quality program” like his own.
Mautone’s work is especially important in New Jersey, which has the highest rate of autism among states participating in a 2010 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey. One in 28 New Jersey boys are diagnosed with the disorder.
Ultimately, the work Mautone will do as Teacher of the Year is a continuation of the outreach he has been doing for years with organizations like Autism Speaks and the National Catholic Partnership for Disability.
“Most of the stuff I do, you don’t get paid for,” said Mautone. “You do it because you’re hoping that you’re going to help another child or a family.”
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.