Robin Brett Goeler
Robin Goeler was born in Toronto, Canada, to parents Don and Laura and grew up in Massapequa, New York, where most of his K-12 education occurred. Upon completion of high school, he was drafted by the Kansas City Royals to play on their farm team but decided to pursue college baseball on a scholarship to Wagner College. He later attended Oneonta State University in New York where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Economics. After a break from school, working and travelling for a few years, he returned to pursue and earn a Master of Science in Special Education from the University of Hartford and a 6th Year in Educational Leadership, Administration and Supervision from Southern Connecticut State University. An avid Red Sox fan, Branford is most fortunate Robin chose an educational career over baseball.
Prior to arriving at Walsh Intermediate School in 1989, Robin was an outdoor experiential education teacher for Special Education youngsters in grades 7-12 at Becket Academy for six years and ultimately its principal for his last three years there. Later he taught in the Special Education Vocational Program at East Hampton High School for two and a half years. Robin has spent his last twenty-eight years with Walsh Intermediate School; fourteen as Assistant Principal and fourteen as Principal.
Many commented that their first impression of Robin as an Assistant Principal was that of a dedicated educational leader who was focused on the development of the “whole child”. Working closely with staff, parents and students to help address students’ social/emotional and academic needs, he was instrumental in introducing and supporting the following programs: Project Adventure, Peer Mediation, Peer Leadership, Conflict Resolution, Teachers as Friends, the Lunch Box program and Character Counts, to name a few. Over the past fourteen years as Principal, Robin continued to foster a positive learning environment, providing staff and students with support and educational trends leading to success for all. One teacher summarized Robin well, saying, “Robin is the one who taught me how to be the best teacher I could be”. Another said, “He is a professional and empathetic leader who listens, discusses and then acts”. Robin is currently serving as Principal of Mary T. Murphy Elementary School where his skills as an educational leader can be shared with a new staff.
In addition to the above, Robin has been involved with the Big Brothers Program and was selected as Big Brother of the Year in 1994. He has been a volunteer committee member for the American Cancer Society’s annual Relay for Life and a presenter for the New England League of Middle Schools, Southern Connecticut State University and St. Joseph’s College. He is married to the “love of his life”, Joann. Together they have two sons, Gavin and Seth, who are pursuing a variety of interests post-schooling. He has two brothers of whom he is very proud; Ronny is a retired Fire Chief and paramedic from New York and Jody who currently is Superintendent of Hamden Schools.
Prior to arriving at Walsh Intermediate School in 1989, Robin was an outdoor experiential education teacher for Special Education youngsters in grades 7-12 at Becket Academy for six years and ultimately its principal for his last three years there. Later he taught in the Special Education Vocational Program at East Hampton High School for two and a half years. Robin has spent his last twenty-eight years with Walsh Intermediate School; fourteen as Assistant Principal and fourteen as Principal.
Many commented that their first impression of Robin as an Assistant Principal was that of a dedicated educational leader who was focused on the development of the “whole child”. Working closely with staff, parents and students to help address students’ social/emotional and academic needs, he was instrumental in introducing and supporting the following programs: Project Adventure, Peer Mediation, Peer Leadership, Conflict Resolution, Teachers as Friends, the Lunch Box program and Character Counts, to name a few. Over the past fourteen years as Principal, Robin continued to foster a positive learning environment, providing staff and students with support and educational trends leading to success for all. One teacher summarized Robin well, saying, “Robin is the one who taught me how to be the best teacher I could be”. Another said, “He is a professional and empathetic leader who listens, discusses and then acts”. Robin is currently serving as Principal of Mary T. Murphy Elementary School where his skills as an educational leader can be shared with a new staff.
In addition to the above, Robin has been involved with the Big Brothers Program and was selected as Big Brother of the Year in 1994. He has been a volunteer committee member for the American Cancer Society’s annual Relay for Life and a presenter for the New England League of Middle Schools, Southern Connecticut State University and St. Joseph’s College. He is married to the “love of his life”, Joann. Together they have two sons, Gavin and Seth, who are pursuing a variety of interests post-schooling. He has two brothers of whom he is very proud; Ronny is a retired Fire Chief and paramedic from New York and Jody who currently is Superintendent of Hamden Schools.
Letters of Nomination
Robin Goeler is my nominee for the 2018 Branford Education Hall of Fame. My experience working with Robin began when I joined the Walsh Intermediate School's Special Education Department in 1990, until my retirement in 2012. Throughout those years, Robin demonstrated his effective leadership skills with staff and students as an assistant principal, and then beginning in 2002, as principal of WIS.
Before coming to Branford, Robin had been a special education teacher/administrator which contributed greatly to our shared views of students' needs. This was immediately evident to me through our respective roles at WIS. As a special education teacher, my commitment has always been to understand the whole child, “ emotionally, socially and academically. If there was a need for flexibility when developing a program for a special education student, Robin supported my recommendations fully. He recognized the student's educational needs had to be individualized in order to be successful learners because often one size doesn't fit all. The assorted programs that were developed, nurtured and thrived under Robin's leadership were most helpful to my middle school students, during very challenging times in their development.
When the need was identified to encourage positive qualities and values in our students, Robin supported my efforts, along with my colleague Dianne Dadio, to complete summer work on what became the Character Counts program. He adjusted the morning schedule to include time for all the teachers to lead small group activities to highlight the character of the month. This program evolved throughout the years and continues today in updated versions.
Another program developed years ago by Robin was Teachers as Friends. Teachers were paired off individually with a student, and as a large group we participated in weekly in school or out of school activities. I loved being able to establish those personal relationships with students outside of the classroom.
Peer Mediation, Peer Leadership and Conflict Resolution are additional examples of programs bin initiated that I was able to participate in, all to the benefit of our WIS students.
In addition to being part of the academic team, I also worked closely with Robin as the Special Education Department Leader. When there were new initiatives to be woven into our school community, Robin always presented it as a collaborative decision making process. One example of this is when I became responsible for the professional development activities for my department. He worked with me to outline and review my plans during those early PD days.
In summary, Robin Goeler is an outstanding administrator whose wisdom and support enhanced my career as a professional educator, for which I'm truly grateful. Given the above, as well as many other examples of Robin Goeler's outstanding leadership qualities, I highly recommend Robin Goeler be inducted into the 2018 Branford Education Hall of Fame.
Before coming to Branford, Robin had been a special education teacher/administrator which contributed greatly to our shared views of students' needs. This was immediately evident to me through our respective roles at WIS. As a special education teacher, my commitment has always been to understand the whole child, “ emotionally, socially and academically. If there was a need for flexibility when developing a program for a special education student, Robin supported my recommendations fully. He recognized the student's educational needs had to be individualized in order to be successful learners because often one size doesn't fit all. The assorted programs that were developed, nurtured and thrived under Robin's leadership were most helpful to my middle school students, during very challenging times in their development.
When the need was identified to encourage positive qualities and values in our students, Robin supported my efforts, along with my colleague Dianne Dadio, to complete summer work on what became the Character Counts program. He adjusted the morning schedule to include time for all the teachers to lead small group activities to highlight the character of the month. This program evolved throughout the years and continues today in updated versions.
Another program developed years ago by Robin was Teachers as Friends. Teachers were paired off individually with a student, and as a large group we participated in weekly in school or out of school activities. I loved being able to establish those personal relationships with students outside of the classroom.
Peer Mediation, Peer Leadership and Conflict Resolution are additional examples of programs bin initiated that I was able to participate in, all to the benefit of our WIS students.
In addition to being part of the academic team, I also worked closely with Robin as the Special Education Department Leader. When there were new initiatives to be woven into our school community, Robin always presented it as a collaborative decision making process. One example of this is when I became responsible for the professional development activities for my department. He worked with me to outline and review my plans during those early PD days.
In summary, Robin Goeler is an outstanding administrator whose wisdom and support enhanced my career as a professional educator, for which I'm truly grateful. Given the above, as well as many other examples of Robin Goeler's outstanding leadership qualities, I highly recommend Robin Goeler be inducted into the 2018 Branford Education Hall of Fame.
I am nominating Robin Goeler as a candidate for the Branford Education Hall of Fame. I had the privilege of working with Robin for over 30 years as a teacher and Department Chair at Walsh Intermediate School. As a teacher I appreciated the middle school philosophy that he instilled in his staff. He was always reminding us that these were adolescents that we worked with and that we must think about the entire child and his/her entire life, not just as a student of Mathematics or any other subject. Academics and curriculum were very important but also the student’s emotional, physical and immediate family life must be our concern as we dealt with individual students. Over the years Robin supported the introduction of many programs at Walsh to help students with the social and emotional concerns. Things like Advisor/advisee, Peer counseling, and Character Counts are all programs that helped staff and students deal with those social and emotion needs. In my role as Department Chair, I found Robin to be a strong advocate for learning about new trends in Mathematics and then having discussions with my staff on how and if they would meet the needs of Walsh students. His thought was we needed to research and learn about new ideas but only institute them when and if they would benefit students in our school. Through his support, encouragement and his yearly evaluations of me as a leader, I believe I grew in my ability to help my fellow Mathematics teachers become better instructors and support people for our students. Although he and I did not always agree, Robin would always listen to my thoughts and then we would discuss the final outcome. Because of our mutual respect and trust for each other these were always professional discussions and not demands made by the Principal. Robin’s leadership style made working with him a comfortable situation and made me feel that I would do whatever I could to make Walsh at great place to work and learn. Robin is a principal who is always “looking out” for his student’s best interest. What comes to mind in this area was his insistence that our curriculum had to have “levels” that addressed the needs of each student. So, if we had a student or students who had already meet all the objectives at a certain grade level class, we must develop or find a way to help that student get to the next level. In our case, could the student be enrolled in a Math class at a higher-grade level, even if it meant to go to a different school for that one class. Conversely, if a student struggled and could not meet the objectives at his/her grade level, how were we going to meet that students needs. We always had to consider the social and emotional impact our decision would have on those students. If we needed to adjust our curriculum objectives, we had to always remember our ultimate goal was for all students to learn at their highest level possible and leave open as many future doors as possible for each of them. In other words, keep expectations high and a level where students could achieve success. The Branford Public School System is very fortunate to have an education leader of the caliber that Robin Goeler exhibits every day. He is a professional, yet empathetic leader who listens, discusses and then acts. I believe he demonstrates the traits needed to become a member of the Branford Education Hall of Fame.
I am nominating Robin Goeler to the Education Hall of Fame. I first met Robin as part of my job interview committee and remember him asking me the following question: “If I could look down on your classroom while you were teaching, what would I see?”. It was clear that he would be interested in the whole atmosphere of my classroom. After being hired, he continued to mentor me through observations and evaluations. In the 15 years that I was part of the middle school community, I never had another evaluator from whom I learned so much. When he came into my classroom to observe, he spoke to many of the students, asking them to explain what they were doing and learning from the lesson. It is a testament to his compassion and ability that the students willingly spoke to him. Following up with me on the observation, he would highlight the positives of what he saw and, then, toward the end of the session, would ask questions that would cause me to reflect and consider ways to improve the lesson. Never was there a negative vibe that created defensiveness or anxiety. I became a better teacher as a result of having him as an evaluator and tried to model his technique when working with my students. He is also a passionate advocate for the whole student and every student. As a result he initiated several programs to improve how we, as teachers, communicated with the students. His Project Adventure program increased my ability to deliver meaning to students who learn in different ways and developed a stronger sense of community within the teaching staff. That program led to working on a much larger scale program of developing the middle school into a Professional Learning Community. He successfully advocated for giving teachers the time to observe each other and to share their most successful work. This then led to teachers developing lessons together, thereby improving everyone’s delivery of learning. Throughout all of this, he was a enthusiastic participant as well as a leader, modeling the fact that we are all lifelong learners and can always improve our methods of teaching. In the 15 years that I taught at WIS I worked with 6 administrators. Robin is the one who taught me how to be the best teacher I could be during that time.
I enthusiastically endorse Robin Goehler for the Branford Education Hall of Fame. I had the privilege of working with Robin at the Intermediate School for 6 years and found him to be completely devoted to providing the finest educational opportunities to each and every student. He cared deeply about every student and went out of his way to help even the most challenging student to find success academically and emotionally. When I interviewed Robin to be Vice Principal of the Intermediate School, I knew that waith his background and philosophy about how children learn, he would be a perfect fit for the school. I certainly endorsed his hiring and never had a reason to question that decision. Robin always looked at new trends to find ways to implement the best programs to help both the students and the teachers in their educational successes. Part of his own success was also based upon the teachers’ support. They knew that he would always be there to support them with whatever their needs might be. I attended an event to honor Robin for his accomplishments that was given by both staff and friends. The outpouring of love and devotion to him, was beyond anything I had ever seen. Branford has benefitted from Robin’s contributions in many ways and his service will continue in many ways and his service will continue to raise the level of success for the students of Branford. He is a great administrator and deserves to be included in the Hall of Fame.
This is a nomination for Robin Goeler to the Branford Education Hall of Fame. I first met Robin when he came to BIS as an assistant principal. He fit in immediately and you knew he was a true "kid" person. His goal was to get to know our students in all areas of their education. You would often see Robin interacting with students in all areas of the building, be it academic, art, music, physical education or other specials, cooking, sewing, and industrial arts (we had those important areas as part of the curriculum then). He cares about his students and his teachers and always had time ti interact with them. He started programs to help those students who needed a little more TLC. One that I remember was our Teachers as Friends, where teachers would pair up with a student and meet with them one to one and do activities after school. Some teachers would also do things outside of school with their student. Some remembrances are watching Robin in our small gym hanging from a climbing apparatus in a harness to demonstrate how force and pulleys work for a science class, participating in our project adventure activities with our students and observing him calmly speaking with a troubled child...He really cared. Robin is without a doubt a candidate for the Branford Education Hall of Fame.