Charles Ellenbogen ’87: Alum, Educator, Author

Charles Ellenbogen ’87, a teacher of 25 years who has worked in schools from Baltimore to St. Paul, MInnesota and points in between, has just published a collection of stories from his classroom experiences: Ihis Isn't The Movies: 25 Years in the Classroom. “It was, in fact, GDS that crystallized my desire to become a teacher,” Charles wrote this week. His first foray into teaching came when former Biology teacher Douglas Allchin invited a student to take charge of an exam review day. “Even before I knew it was a good way of helping myself review for the exam, I volunteered. I just enjoyed thinking about making these elaborate review plans. I made games, and my classmates seemed to enjoy them. Did they help? I'm not sure. I didn't know enough to ask then.”

Charles also echoed what many alumni lift up in their memories: not only the content teachers taught and how, but also how teachers treated them and made them feel. “My English teachers, notably John Burghardt and Kevin Barr, really sparked my imagination with the books they chose, their clear passion for the literature, their stories, their high standards and—and this is the part that's especially important to me—that they clearly took us seriously. I get feedback from [my] current and former students that they liked that I treated them like adults. I got that from John, Kevin, Laura Rosberg, and others.”

After a 25 year career and counting, Charles definitely knows something about strategies for sustaining and re-energizing himself as an educator year after year. “It is essential that we keep ourselves re-energized,” he explained. “I'm older now, so I do more mentoring. I write articles, do presentations, and I read, read, read. I'm always trying new things in the classroom—new books and new ideas. I've been exploring podcasting lately as a way to tell stories.”

Alumni often share the lasting impact that GDS had on the person they have become, and Charles’s story speaks to his desire to carry on that lasting impact to future generations of students in schools around the country. “I am not who I am without GDS,” he wrote. “I had a three-day interview for a position at The Blake School in Minnesota. When I got my first break on Day 1, I called my wife and said, ‘It's a lot like GDS.’ She said she knew then that I wanted the job.”

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You can purchase Charles’s book through Belt Publishing or Amazon.

Charles and collaborator Dr. Molly Buckley-Marudas recently received the Nilsen-Donelson Award for the "Best Article of 2019" in the NCTE's (National Council of Teachers of English) ALAN Review (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE) for their article, "Using YA Literature to Support Students as They Wrestle with Violence, Police Brutality, and Trauma: Engaging The Hate U Give."