MASSACHUSETTS VIRTUAL WOW! Spring 2020

+ What advice might you share to those interested in becoming a teacher in this moment?

I'm thrilled when I hear from folks that they're interested in pursuing a career in teaching. It's a wonderful and fulfilling career; and educators can have such a tremendous impact on kids’ lives. I think it's certainly a challenging moment right now for the nation, and we need to think about how we will find ways to still do the things that we know are critical for preparing people to become teachers.

There's learning that one needs to do, for example, about students and their development; about students and their community; about content about pedagogy; and one has to continue to find ways to learn all of those things and find ways to see great teaching. That's hard during a moment when schools are closed. But, the key to a successful transition to teaching is seeing great teachers and learning from them, so finding ways to do that through videos of great teaching will be critical. And then, obviously in the fall if it is safe to do so, it will be important to get into the classrooms of master teachers and to learn from them.

I also always recommend to teachers that it is helpful to gather feedback on their teaching—by having colleagues in their classes, by asking students to reflect on learning, and by watching videos of themselves teaching. It’s one of the reasons why the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards’ process to become a National Board-certified teacher is such a wonderful process.

+ What is one piece of advice that you would give a student who wants to follow a similar path as you?

I have two pieces of advice. One is to find great mentors and role models. From my time as a teacher to my time in government, it's always been hugely valuable to have folks who could share their experiences and insights and help point me in the right direction. It's important, whether you’re a high school student seeking out a teacher who can be a mentor and adviser, or a new teacher finding a veteran teacher who can help to support you early in your career, or a person working in the policy world finding trusted colleagues who will ask tough questions and give you honest, thoughtful, constructive feedback.

And the second piece of advice is to always be open to learning. To read as much as possible. To talk to as many people as possible about an issue, including people who have different perspectives from your own. To engage with students and parents about their experiences, and to engage with folks who are working with young people in contexts outside of schools to gather their insights. It’s crucial always to be open to learning and to be open to trying to better understand the dimensions of the problems that you are working to solve.

+ How do you think middle school students might be feeling about going back to school in the fall? How can volunteers and mentors support?

Well, I think students certainly have missed seeing their friends. I am the parent of a ninth grader, so I have some firsthand knowledge on how she's thinking about it. For sure there’s excitement about seeing friends.

I think there is some real nervousness about what school will look like. Will there be extracurricular activities? Will there be the same social time in between classes? Will there be social time outside of school? Or to what extent will those things be limited by public health concerns?

I think for some students who have challenging home situations, it's been a really difficult period. And they are going to need mentoring and support and, potentially, counseling and mental health services when they come back to school to try to process what they've been through over these last few months. Certainly, some students will have trouble adjusting to the structure of school because they haven't had a lot of structure in their lives over the period of school closures. Mentors can be very helpful in aiding students to prepare for what the transition back to school will look like, helping students to get caught up academically, and navigating the adjustment period.

+ Clint Smith mentioned during a webinar that educators and education organizations might be worried about being labeled as political when they introduce the topics of racism and related educational disparities in the classroom. What words of wisdom or encouragement can you offer from your personal experience to help empower educators to navigate that space?

It's important that when we are talking with students about complicated political issues, that we're really trying to cultivate their socio-political consciousness. You want students to have a sense of what the facts are, what the data show. You want students to have an understanding of different perspectives that people bring to the facts and the data. And, so you're trying to help students think critically about the issues and to form their own views about how we move forward as a society. But, I wouldn't shy away, in any way, from creating an anti-racist classroom and school environment and ensuring that students understand both the challenges of the current moment and the history from which those challenges come and the history of racism and anti-Blackness in American society.