BRONX W www.BXTimes.com EEKLY December 29, 2019 4
Retired P.S. 14 physical education teacher publishes children’s book
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Retired PS 14 teacher Glo DioDati with her book “Glowings and
Luke.” Schneps Media Jason Cohen
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MEMBER:
BY JASON COHEN
A Bronx physical education
teacher didn’t
just educate her students
about sports and exercise,
but taught them character
development and how
to be good people.
Glo DioDati, who retired
four years ago,
taught for 37 years, 21 of
those at P.S. 14, Senator
John D. Calandra School,
3041 Bruckner Boulevard.
In September, she published
a book ‘Glo-wings
Luke,’ which deals with a
young boy learning how to
behave and treat people.
In the book, Luke misbehaves
and runs into a
tree full of butterfl ies. It
is there where the butterfl
ies tell him in order
to be a better person he
must do three nice things
each day.
She used to tell the
story to her students and
they always enjoyed it. It
was only recently that she
was able to attach illustrations
with it and make
a fi nished product.
“I think mainly it (the
story) made them feel
good about whom they
were,” she said.
While the book came
out a few months ago, her
passion for sports and
teaching began when she
grew up in Yonkers.
During her tenure at
P.S. 14, she developed programs
that encouraged
students and staff to think
with their heart. She sang
songs with the children,
did meditation and even
made three CDs; ‘Turning
the Tide,’ ‘Celebrate
Yourself’ and ‘Under the
Stars.’
“Two or three years
into the job I realized it’s
such a perfect platform
to teach kids about respecting
and loving each
other,” she said.
DioDati knew that
kids bullied and insulted
each other too much and
wanted to change that.
She noted that often in
sports kids were picked
on if they were slow or
couldn’t catch.
“When that started happening,
I realized this is
not happening in my gym,”
she recalled.
She introduced character
education lessons and
taught kids to respect each
other. DioDati used slogans,
such as ‘Think with
Your Heart,’ ‘Celebrate
Yourself,’ ‘Your Beautiful’
and ‘Change.’
She taught the kids
there’s no such thing as
failure and that their actions
affect everyone, not
just themselves.
“When I said think with
your heart, you could kind
of see their wheels turning,”
she remarked.
According to DioDati,
one of the most important
lessons she taught
the youngsters was about
self worth. She would
look them in the eye and
ask who they were and it
wasn’t until they truly got
to know themselves that
they realized they were
loved.
She joked how often
at parent teacher conferences,
moms and dads
were astonished to learn
how well behaved their
kids were in class and at
home were the opposite.
DioDati read the book
to P.S. 14 and it was a big
hit with the kids. In fact,
one student said it was one
of the he best books she
ever heard.
“The fact that they embrace
it and you can see
that kids want to hear the
positive message, it kind of
inspires me to keep moving
on,” she commented.
To learn more about her
“Glowings and Luke,” a children’s book written by retired PS 14 teacher Glo DioDati
Photo Courtesy Mikey Colon
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