Blogs

Meet Molly Debruhl, a special education teacher at Rivermont Schools Northern Virginia campus. Mrs. Debruhl is an enthusiastic and passionate teacher that plays an integral role in our students' lives. Here are some insights on what makes Rivermont Schools a special place.  

How long have you been at Rivermont NOVA?

I started at Rivermont NOVA as a Mental Health Associate in 2017. Although I had never intended to become a teacher, I temporarily took over mid-COVID in August 2020 and haven’t looked back since!

Why do you like working at Rivermont NOVA?

One of my favorite parts about working here is that I'm in the high school building. I have potentially up to seven years with my students if they don't transfer back to their base school, which is our eventual goal. That gives me so much time to form strong relationships with them, which in turn deepens trust and makes learning more available. In many ways, we become close to them like family!

What is your favorite celebration or fun activity at Rivermont NOVA?

Well, this year we just had our first pep rally. That was massive. Usually, our students across grades don't interact with each other as often as we'd like, but it was nice. We got to have kids of all ages playing tug of war, musical chairs, and we just had a great time together. The same went for our Field Day in July. The kids had so much fun throwing water on staff, chilling in the wade pools, playing limbo, and eating snow cones! Any chance the entire school gets to come together is my favorite time.

Use three words to describe the NOVA team.

Flexible – Every day is different, so we must be willing to meet the kids where they are as they come into the school day. Sometimes we need to focus on safety and social-emotional health one day. Other days it means that we are fully into academics and vocational skills.  

Creative – We have a variety of different learning styles here and we want to be able to meet every single learning style. Some students learn better visually via step-by-step directions or modeling. Some students learn well kinesthetically by use of arts and crafts, some prefer working on a smart board or through worksheets. I also have a student who is an excellent auditory learner! We must find creative ways to make those lessons fun and engaging, but also utilize different learning styles throughout!

Inclusive – Most classes have a wide variety of differently-abled students. What’s amazing is when we do whole group activities, we can see students using their own strengths to help classmates with different strengths. By noticing what is different about each other, it helps the students to learn where they can help, what they need help with, and how they can be an effective member of the school community.