Blackhawk’s New Faces
Blackhawk is excited to welcome two new teachers to our Special Education program. Both will be working in Blackhawk Intermediate School in the fall.
Zachary Wallace
Zachary Wallace will be working in the PRIDE Program with 3rd and 4th grade Life Skills. Mr. Wallace joins Blackhawk from the Watson Institute where he has worked for the last two and a half years. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Special and Elementary Education in 2018 from Geneva College where he spent several student teaching assignments in the BIS building. He earned his master’s degree in Special Education with an Autism emphasis from Slippery Rock University in June of 2021.
Mr. Wallace’s favorite part of teaching is building individual relationships with students. He says, “I enjoy learning each student’s interests and incorporating them into my lessons. Mainly, I like making learning fun for all my students in the classroom.
In his free time, Mr. Wallace loves playing, watching, and coaching basketball, and is a huge fan of music and photography. He also enjoys traveling in Europe where he spends his summers teaching English in Germany. People would be surprised to know that he has met Kobe Bryant and Kevin Hart.
In joining the Blackhawk team, Mr. Wallace says, “I hope I can make learning fun for each and every one of my students. I want all my students to make progress on their academic goals in a warm and nurturing classroom environment.”
Curtis Covert
Curtis Covert will be joining Blackhawk to teach third grade Learning Support. Mr. Covert is a familiar face as he has spent the last year teaching K-2 Learning Support at BIS as a long-term substitute. Mr. Covert earned his bachelor’s degree from Geneva College with a major in Special and Elementary Education. After graduating from Geneva, he moved to Alaska and earned master’s credits from the University of Alaska. In Napakiak, Alaska, he taught preschool through first grade. In addition, he taught K-9th grade Learning Support at a charter school in Youngstown, OH.
Mr. Covert’s favorite part of teaching is seeing the spark of learning something new glowing over a child’s face. He says, “I particularly enjoy watching students grow in their reading confi dence throughout the school year.”
His hobbies include playing in a softball league, following Pittsburgh sports, coin collecting, deer hunting, and automotive work. People would be surprised to know that he was the eighth generation to grow up in the same farmhouse on a plot of land that was originally a Revolutionary War land grant.
Mr. Covert says, “At the end of the year, I want to look at myself in the mirror and know that I did the best that I could to help each student be the best version of him/herself.”
