Retired Principal Was Legendary for On-Demand Writing
Wildwood Crest’s James Grauel, a top competitor in the very tough Ironman competitions, likes to tell a story about his principal at Crest Memorial School, Ann-Maria Guevara.
Grauel says Guevara was scary.
“Even the parents were afraid of her,” he said.
That notion amused Guevara.
Scary, of course, is a relative term. One of the “scary” things for Crest Memorial students, Grauel said, was Guevara’s practice of “On-Demand Essays.” He said you might walk into any class, even phys ed, “and there she was,” telling them to prepare to write an essay.
But he said the experience, though frightening at the time, taught him to never be afraid of essay writing, whether in high school or college.
Guevara, 72, of Somers Point, retired from teaching after her career at Crest Memorial. She talked to the Herald recently about her philosophy of writing and her career in education.
She was born in Providence, Rhode Island. At age 18 she left the state to attend Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She said she had gone through 12 years of Catholic school and still didn’t know how to think. She ended up dropping out of college at 19, worked at various jobs, and got married at 26.
Guevara did not have children, and by age 36 she was asking herself, what do you love to do, and what do you do well? She knew she loved to read and was a good writer who was interested in working with people. English, or rather teaching English, seemed to be her natural inclination.
With her 15 credits from her first attempt at college, she enrolled at Stockton College, now Stockton University, as a second-semester freshman. She graduated from Stockton at age 39 with a teaching certificate and was hired that summer to teach at Wildwood High School.
“They handed me a copy of the textbook – not the teacher’s edition – and two boxes of chalk, and told me, ‘You’ll be fine,’” she said.
Being fond of the subject matter and well-suited to it, she said she jumped into the curriculum. She enjoyed writing lesson plans and engaging with the students, although she found it to be a tremendous amount of work – as well as tremendously rewarding.
“It should be a vocation,” she said. “If you are not taking work home with you, something is wrong.”
Guevara said she worked at developing teaching methods that were engaging and useful for the students.
“It has to be useful in some way,” she said.
She started out her first year teaching the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” some of which dates back to about 2100 BC, as part of a world-based curriculum. She said to herself that, if she was going to teach Dante’s “Inferno,” she had better find a way to make it relevant. Considering “sins” and the levels of punishment mentioned in Dante, she decided to have students think of sins and assign an appropriate punishment.
With Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” the assignment was for each student to choose the character that meant the most to them and give a report. She said one student selected Ma Joad and gave her report in character, using the “Okie” dialect.
She taught at Wildwood High School from 1991 to 2002 and wrote the curriculum for every level. She then went to Oakcrest High School in Mays Landing and became the supervisor of English and foreign languages from 2002 to 2005.
Guevara said she loved teaching, but by then she thought it might be time to think about doing something different.
“I thought, I’ve pulled all the rabbits out of my hat and began to think of administration,” she said.
She had earned a master of liberal arts degree with a focus on literature from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996. In 2005, Crest Memorial was looking for a supervisor of curriculum who could act as the principal. This was the first year, she said, that the state required a superintendent’s certificate. She received both her superintendent and principal certification while on the job at Crest Memorial.
Asked if she was a “hands-on” principal, Guevara replied, “Oh, yes. I didn’t see it as my job to sit behind a desk.”
Her claim to fame became the On-Demand Essays, where she would pop in and ask the students to write them. She said it was necessary to first prepare the teachers and get them onboard with what she was doing.
The plan was to prepare the students, giving them at least four ways to start most essays, she said. Once started, they were to come up with three “big ideas” to form their argument. The last part was to teach them at least three fail-safe ways to end any essay, such as a call to action.
“The idea was they would go in with a toolbox for writing an essay,” she said. “Once you know how to build a house, you can become a Frank Lloyd Wright.”
Guevara said her goal for the On-Demand Essays was to make all of the students competent writers. She said the essays were not initially graded: The teachers would take the entire class through the writing process, culminating with the essays, which were edited but not scored.
Guevara said teaching writing is a lot of work, and every Friday afternoon she took a load of papers home.
She retired from Crest Memorial School in 2014, but did not remain away from teaching for very long. Between 2015 and 2020, she taught argumentation and persuasive writing at Stockton University.
Guevara is now fully retired and belongs to four different book groups, some in person and some via Zoom. She also visits the gym and tends her garden.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
