Students, Co-Workers Remember Passionate High School English Teacher

With the passing of English teacher Linda M. Beloin last week, the Middletown high community lost a devoted and inspirational educator whose teaching combined her life's passions. 

Beloin, who lived in Farmington and graduated from Farmington High School in 1980, died April 7 after a battle with cancer. 

"Her students meant the world to her," Beloin's obituary reads, "many kept in touch with her over the years. Some of her coworkers were among her greatest friends at the end of her life. She loved teaching and she loved her students."

These very students took to Twitter to express their sadness about Beloin's passing on Monday morning, after Middletown High Principal Colleen Weiner place counselors in her room throughout the day.

"She was the quintessential educator," Weiner said. "She will be missed."

"She had a great love of literature including Rumi, Thoreau, and Emerson," according to her obituary. "Philosophers, poets, and naturalists, as well as healers and spiritual leaders had a major influence on Linda's Life. Linda goal was to bring this collective wisdom to her classroom, and to all of us."
Middletown High School English teacher Michael Fraulino became Beloin's close friend after a decade working together. 

The two taught all levels of English 10, world literature and AP literature together, Fraulino said, adding she was a graduate of San Diego State and taught at San Diego Unified for a number of years before returning to Connecticut to teach at MHS.

"She loved the bay area of California, and she had a great many friends there whom she visited in the summer," he said.

"She was an outstanding teacher who put much effort into designing meaningful, creative assignments for her students, and she spent countless hours assessing student work in order to give them timely feedback on their writing. Linda was a great colleague, willingly sharing her materials and ideas. We enjoyed having many philosophical and pedagogical conversations. 

Beloin promoted creative writing through the district's Silent Sounds Literary Magazine and her students' pieces were consistently chosen for public reading at the Silent Sounds annual celebration in May, Fraulino said. 

"Linda was a close friend whose honesty and loyalty made her very special to me. Linda and I went on a number of professional AP literature and composition conferences. Also, we helped to chaperone the annual U.S. history trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, which are among the most memorable experiences we shared together," he said. 

Retired Middletown High teacher Jim Bransfield was a paraprofessional in Beloin's sophomore college prep English class three years ago, assigned to work with a differently-abled child.

"While there, I had the opportunity to observe her instruction. She was absolutely dedicated to the kids and had very high standards. The class had 22 to 23 boys and two girls and she had perfect class control. 

"She played background music for the kids while they read and did in-class written work and she encouraged class participation and discussion. She always decorated her classroom walls with newspaper clippings of her students' achievements in sports or for any honors they received and she always called her classes' attention to the clippings."  

Beloin was a very private person, Bransfield said, "and while she battled her illness and had been ill for a number of years, she taught to the end and was working a full day as recently as two weeks ago. I was told that she had a family member bring in all her graded and ungraded student papers, all meticulously ordered, a day or two before she passed away."  

A celebration of her life will be held this summer. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Chenrezig Thibetan Buddist Center, 7 Park Place, Middletown, CT 06457, 860-346-6136.

Visit her "Book of Memories" at www.vincentfuneralhome.com for online condolences.