Teacher Spotlight: Retiring Bethpage teacher to say goodbye with a disco dance party

Bethpage High School philosophy and AP World History teacher Wendy Way likes to keep her students moving — and not just intellectually. Over 31 years at Bethpage High, she had led student trips across Europe, Asia and Africa and had turned her classroom into a dance floor during weekly "Disco Fridays."

Disco Fridays, held for five minutes before the final class of the week, feature a glitter ball spinning from the classroom ceiling, lighting effects and Way spinning 1970s hits by Donna Summer and the Bee Gees.

“Anybody from any grade or anyone I’ve ever taught in the school is welcome to come dance,” Way, 62, of Holbrook, said of the tradition that ends on the day of her July 1 retirement.

“I’m having Miss Way’s last dance” that day, she said.

Way, who also serves as the high school student counsel adviser and ethics team coach, grew up in Syracuse in “a family of teachers,” she said. An aunt and a grandmother taught elementary school, while her father, an engineer, and uncle, an architect, taught college courses in their respective fields.

Despite that background, Way took a different path at first. After earning a bachelor’s in psychology from Syracuse University, she worked in the banking industry and as a restaurant server before deciding at age 27 that “the universe was whispering in my ear” about her true calling.

“Wherever I was working, I wound up in a position where I was teaching other people,” Way said. She earned a master's degree in History Education at Stony Brook University and began her teaching career at age 30 at Bethpage High, where colleagues and students praise her teaching methods.

Way “doesn't just teach history and philosophy — she brings them to life for her students,” Erica Indenbaum, social studies/21st century coordinator for Bethpage High School, said in a statement. “She inspires her students to think deeply, ask meaningful questions and see the world through a wider, critical lens.”

“A big part of how she teaches us allows us to build critical thinking and problem-solving skills,” said Sahana Passaro, 17, of Bethpage, who is taking Way’s AP World History course and is a member of the high school’s ethic’s team, which Way coaches. 

Sahana also accompanied Way and other Bethpage students on an April spring break tour of Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin. One of 28 class trips spread out over 25 years, the itinerary included visiting the sites of the old Berlin Wall and the World War II Mauthausen Concentration Camp. 

In other World History trips to South Africa and Thailand, and in a postretirement student trip planned for this summer to Japan, Way added “the focus is less Eurocentric” because, she explains, “we can’t always look through a Western viewpoint.

Way said she’ll spend retirement working winters at Walt Disney World in Orlando, “playing lots of pickleball” and taking cooking classes.

In Bethpage, Way said she hopes to be remembered for introducing the high school’s philosophy program, in which students earn three college credits from Molloy University in Rockville Centre. They’ve presented their philosophy papers at colleges and entered national and international ethics and philosophy competitions.

“At the end of the day,” Way said, she tried to send students into “a world that is in need of more critical thinkers.”

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