When students and staff left school in June of 2023, they left with warm wishes of returning in fall to see everyone again; however, when they returned in fall, teacher of gifted students Julia Dweck was not there.

Her classroom was as she left it in June.

Over the summer, Dweck was diagnosed with cancer and died Oct. 11.

The staff and students never got to say goodbye.

Colleague Matt Weimann shared he had spoken with Dweck on the phone in July and “that was the last time I talked to my friend.”

In a memorial video, one of her students, Lucas, was heartbroken as he shared, “I miss you. You will always be the best teacher I ever had. I’m sad I never got to say goodbye.”

Recently, the Willow Lane Elementary School lobby was dedicated to Julia Dweck as a way for all who knew her to remember her and find a way to honor her memory.

Principal Dr. Anthony Moyer shared Dweck was the first teacher he ever hired for Willow Lane Elementary School. Moyer had been the principal at Wescosville Elementary School and was transitioning to the new Willow Lane Elementary School in Macungie and he needed to hire a teacher for a temporary position.

Dweck had been teaching in Allentown and her resume caught his eye. Dweck’s resume included a picture of her dressed as Dr. Seuss, a favorite of Moyer’s. Moyer reached out to Dweck and offered her the job.

Dweck commented she would love to come work in East Penn but could not afford a temporary position. She needed it full time.

“Within the hour,” Moyer noted, “a full-time position opened. It was meant to be. Julia was the first teacher I hired at Willow Lane.”

Moyer described Dweck as “an amazing educator who was creative and unique. A teacher who danced to the beat of her own drum.”

He said the two of them discussed they would retire together.

“When you go, I go,” Moyer recalled Dweck saying to him. Moyer will retire this year and shared “it was important to dedicate this to her.”

Dweck taught in the East Penn School District for 18 years.

Weimann explained how Dweck “took learning to the extreme.”

Dweck started a Rubik’s Cube club and competition at the school that would bring her students back to participate year after year in a tournament-style approach.

It was fitting Weimann engaged his students and Dweck’s former students to create a portrait of Dweck using Rubik’s cubes. Weimann located a photo of Dweck and had his students use a free Rubik’s cube generator to create the photo in pdf format. Students created proposals and the students voted on the portrait.

The portrait is made of 216 Rubik’s cubes. Students signed up for different parts of the mosaic. Each cube was solved by a student and tweaked to fit the mosaic. Because each student actually solved the cubes, they were tweaked to provide diversity to the sides of the mosaic. Students can identify the part of the mosaic unique to each of them.

“This is how she (Dweck) would have done this,” Weimann explained.

“Julia, forgive us but we will never forget you.” Weimann continued, although the mosaic “may hold a likeness to her, it is not like her.”

He described her as someone who would never allow a picture of her to be hung in the school or anywhere else. Weimann imagined Dweck protesting.

“The look on her face, the tone of her voice. She would graciously thank us for the thought, but, no.”

Soft laughter emerged from those who could hear her saying exactly this.

“Well, this is one time that we are going to have to put our foot down, Julia. We are not going to allow you to hide your brilliance, mask the hours of hard work you put into your lessons.”

Weimann described Dweck as one who “pushed her students forward, one who showcased her pupil’s performances while curtaining the window into all of the behind the scene work that she produced.”

He then asked Dweck to “forgive us for placing your portrait here. We understand if you never do. The potent way in which you influenced us will ensure we never forget you.”

Moyer asked the guests if anybody else would like to share something and several individuals spoke.

Staff member Tonya Spengler shared her daughter had Dweck as a teacher and appreciated Dweck’s persistence in establishing a program with Columbia University that paired her students with graduate students in writing.

“My daughter is now a sophomore and has published three novels,” Spengler said.

Staff member Ally Fisher noted Dweck worked with her students to publish a book that was awarded a National Kids Are Authors Award by Scholastic, Inc.

Former students Charlotte Smith and Marisa Donker, now in middle school, recognized Dweck for the practical connections to businesses when doing their projects. Other students thanked Dweck for engaging them in Math 24 and allowing them to express their creativity in learning.

On June 5, Emmaus High School seniors who attended Willow Lane returned to their elementary school to be celebrated by the current students and staff. Brighton Yu, Jadon Pierre-Philippe, Priya Mancheril, Vanessa Owusu-Anim and Larshee Nyinyi took a moment in front of Dweck’s mosaic in the lobby to remember their teacher. They were a part of putting this mosaic together and they pointed to the parts of the mosaic that they contributed.

Pierre-Philippe shared that Dweck “was an incredible teacher. She did so much for all of us.”

The rest of the seniors agreed. Other seniors passed by the mosaic sharing that even though they did not have Dweck as a teacher, they knew who she was and missed her, too.

At the dedication ceremony, Moyer had those in attendance, including East Penn Superintendent Kristen Campbell, release party poppers in Dweck’s memory because this is “something Julia would have done.”

Everyone smiled and laughed. Weimann concluded by saying “You were our gifted teacher. You were a gift to teaching. You were a gift to us. Our teacher, our friend.”