Henrico's Top Teachers – Theresa Bilello, Seven Pines Elementary School, exceptional education

A career in forensic science was in the works for New York native Theresa Bilello, who had earned her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from St. John’s University and was preparing to start on a master’s degree at John Jay College.

But upon graduation, a friend of her father offered her a fifth-grade teaching job in New York City (at Public School No. 133). She took it and a new career path was born.

In the years since, she’s worked as a counselor, clinical support specialist, teacher, vice principal, case manager and reading interventionist and spent time in private practice, working with children on the autism spectrum.

The winding path brought her to the Richmond region, then led her all the way to Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates before twisting back to this region, where she has worked as an exceptional education teacher at Seven Pines Elementary School in Sandston since 2018. There, she works with small groups of students who have a variety of learning disabilities. It’s exactly where she wants to be until she retires.

“You see a lot of growth and progress,” Bilello said of the students she teaches. “It’s so satisfying when you can connect with students with disabilities. It’s just wonderful to see them grow.”

For Bilello, so much of that growth begins with the connections she creates with her students and their families. As a native New Yorker who has retained a classic New York accent, she finds that sometimes, her students just enjoy hearing her talk.

“When I say “gawwbage,” they think it’s funny,” she said. “I like to have fun in my classroom. I think that’s how kids learn best. Sometimes they don’t even realize they’re learning.”

Bilello sometimes drops into students’ classrooms to work with them there and other times welcomes small groups into her own classroom. She stays with some students most of the day, including at lunch and recess. And she’s looped up with a number of them year after year, getting to know them and their families better in the process and helping to provide the consistency and familiarity that many of them need.

“If they feel comfortable with you, they’re more willing to do what you ask them to do even if they don’t want to do it,” she said.

Her efforts to immerse herself in the lives of her students have not gone unnoticed.

“She goes above and beyond to help her special needs students,” a nominator wrote of Bilello. “She makes sure to advocate for them and make sure their needs are met.”

Meeting those needs often means keeping the students active.

“Movement is very important for my students,” Bilello said. “You can’t expect them to sit still – there’s no kid that wants to learn like that.”

Bilello takes great pride in the small achievements her students make regularly throughout the school year. Sometimes, seeing a student’s confidence build can be even more important and rewarding than seeing his or her skills grow, because Bilello knows the latter will follow.

Bilello’s time with United Methodist Family Services in Richmond took her to Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for parts of eight years, where she helped establish an American curriculum school.

“It was really amazing to see how much they value the American curriculum and how much they wanted to learn English,” she said. But there were no classes for students with special needs, and Bilello was glad to begin working with those students again when she returned to Henrico.

So too are the parents of the students whose lives she has impacted since.

“[Dr.] Bilello has impacted my son by teaching him to be confident, praising his achievements, and making him feel comfortable in his differences,” a nominator wrote.