Extraordinary Educator

Odd-angled questions. Teaching as marathon running. Balancing humility and confidence in the classroom. Zeke is so masterful yet so modest about his craft. He talks so vulnerably about his constant refinement of his practice, and he tells us about the amazing work being done at Excel Academy Charter High School in East Boston.Zeke was a winner of the highly selective Fishman Prize in 2015. He first began teaching with the Breakthrough Collaborative in Cambridge and also tutored students in Holyoke as a student in Amherst College. Afterwards, he taught in New York City with Bronx Leadership Academy Two and then later was a founding teacher at Democracy Prep’s first high school. Since he has moved back to Boston, he has served as a founding teacher at two Excel Academy Charter Schools and is currently an instructional leader at their East Boston High School.

Bilingual education. Mind-blowing school visits in Cuba. Inspiring parental involvement.  Ana Tavares is the principal of the legendary K-8 Hernandez School in Boston, the first bilingual school in the state. Ana's stories are so captivating and wise but also so full of humility and a sense of history. In her tales, you'll hear her gratitude for not only her immigrant parents but also key Latina principal mentors in Boston like Catalina Montes and Margarita Muñiz. She also reflects thoughtfully about supporting teachers and cultivating restorative circles.Ana was an early Teach for America cohort member, and she talks powerfully about being one of the first Latina teachers to work in Compton in LA. She then moved on to grassroots public health work in Florida before moving up to Boston where she worked at the Gardner and Mission Hill schools before eventually becoming principal of the Hernandez.

Revolutionary teacher training. Resilience amidst justice work. Starting a school. Scott McCue is so thoughtful and vulnerable about it all. He is dean of Sposato Graduate School of Education, one of the most innovative teacher training programs in the nation. In 2003, he founded Boston Preparatory Charter Public School, a pioneer amidst the nation’s renewed focus on character education. Along the way, he has worked alongside so many legends of recent education reform. As you’ll hear, he participated as a Harvard undergraduate in after-school programs alongside John King, who later became US Education Secretary under President Obama. And later, after some initial teaching in New York City, Scott worked at the Academy of the Pacific Rim Charter Public School in Boston under Doug Lemov, of Teach like a Champion fame.

Student-run community meetings. K-12 social action projects. Holistic supports for students & families. Thabiti Brown wants it all. He is head of school for Codman Academy Charter Public School, one of the most innovative schools in the state if not the country. Thabiti is one of those rare people recognized nationally as both a teacher & a principal. And yet we’ll hear him speaking so vulnerably about current challenges like retaining strong teachers and balancing academic rigor with their holistic model.Thabiti talks about growing up in NYC as "a nerd’s nerd" amidst family and schools that celebrated blackness and the African diaspora. He went on to Hunter College High School, Brown University, and Teachers College. He fell in love with teaching through the Breakthrough Collaborative in Portland Oregon and then worked in New York and later in Panama. Since 2001 he has been at Codman—first as a founding humanities teacher before becoming head of school for their entire K-12 operation. He won a Milken Educator Award as a high school humanities teacher in 2005 and then in 2014 EL Education honored him with the Silverberg Leadership Award for his work as a principal.

Supporting immigrant students, celebrating students & families, empowering teachers. We hear from three extraordinary educators at the heart of the amazing turnaround in Lawrence Public Schools, about an hour north of Boston. A decade ago, the city’s schools were notorious for corruption and low performance, but since 2012, its schools have garnered headlines nationwide for their dramatic improvement.Our first guest, Komal Bhasin, is the remarkable principal of UP Academy Leonard, an in-district turnaround middle school. She started teaching with the Breakthrough Collaborative in New England. After college, she taught in New Orleans with Teach for America and then later with KIPP. Afterwards, she served as principal at Excel Academy Charter School in East Boston.Our second guest is one of UP Leonard’s superstar math teachers, Luis Rosado, who attended Lawrence Public Schools himself growing up as a teenager. He is entering his fifth year working at UP Leonard.Our third guest is the amazing Shalimar Quiles, principal of the Hennessy PreK through 2nd grade School. She also proudly grew up in Lawrence Public Schools. Shalimar coordinated family and community relations for the Boston Public Schools before becoming a major leader in the district-wide Lawrence turnaround efforts.

Barn-raising discussions, project-based learning, nonfiction literacy. Award-winning AP English teacher Jen Stocklin brings infectious passion to it all. Jen has brought students to the Mississippi Delta to learn about Faulkner, to the NYTimes offices to learn about journalism. She’s had students to study the philosophy of education and write letters to legislators about charter school laws. And yet she still speaks so vulnerably, about her struggles as young teacher, about being tracked as a young girl in Ohio and how that still affects her thinking on AP for All today. We’ll also hear about her fascinating experiences as a college student at St John’s College in Maryland and as a masters student with the legendary Eleanor Duckworth. Jen got her start with Teach for America and then KIPP in Helena, Arkansas. Later, she worked for several years at KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate just north of Boston as a high school English teacher and humanities department chair. Since then, she has served as Editorial Director for High School Curriculum nationwide for the KIPP Foundation and now works with KIPP charter schools across the country.

Craig has such a rare combination of wisdom, humor, and spirituality. He has won awards as both a teacher and principal in Boston Public Schools. He talks about teaching by his early teens(!), celebrating student identities, reducing suspensions, the importance of food and music in schools, Power Ranger costumes, and more!Craig was the 2018 Massachusetts Elementary School Principal of the Year and also the 2009 Boston Educator of the Year. He is a proud HBCU graduate as an alumnus of Dillard University in New Orleans. He taught for several years in the Boston Public Schools before becoming Principal of the Perkins Elementary School in South Boston in 2013. This summer he is currently transitioning into the role of Executive Director at Bridge Boston Charter School.