Humble ‘masters’

Dave SandersAt the New American Academy in Brooklyn, the day begins with 90 minutes of reflection among teaching teams: (from left) Pepe Gutierrez, partner teacher and chapter leader; special ed teacher Nachama Barber; ATR literacy teacher Linnette Green-Drew; partner teacher Susan Coronel; and 1st-grade master teacher Lorraine Scorsone. It seems you’ve wandered into a forest of enchanted children. In the enormous open classroom, 2nd-graders are quietly reading, perched on a stairway, draped across chairs or lying on floor-pillows.

In another 2,000-square-foot classroom, sitting on large rugs that mark the three separate learning centers, groups of 1st-graders are shouting out numbers.

Dave Sanders“We breathe the same air,” said kindergarten master teacher Elizabeth DeAngelis. “We’re ingrained in the classroom.” It’s another morning at the New American Academy in Crown Heights, a lofty, open-architecture public school with lofty ideas on education usually found in leafy New England enclaves.

The academy, also known as PS 770, features reflective practice and decentralized teacher decision making instead of top-down leadership. At the heart of it is a master teacher program that truly works.

“It’s a bottom-up collaborative model with shared decision making where we’re responsible for the students, the school and each other,” said Lorraine Scorsone, the 1st-grade master teacher.

Four teachers, including a master teacher, team teach in each room of 60 children, creating a ratio of 15:1. The school, which has been in existence for two years, has one class each of grades K-2 and will grow to the 5th grade, with the teaching teams and students staying together through six-year learning loops.

The academy is based on a model the school’s founder, Shimon Waronker, created with others at the Harvard School of Education. Student-centered values that include individual creativity, discovery and scientific inquiry have been imported into this high-poverty urban elementary school, where about 20 percent of students have varying disabilities.

Like the other master teachers and their teams do every morning, Scorsone is meeting with two partner teachers and the apprentice teacher from 8 to 9:30 a.m. while students are off eating breakfast and then playing. During this built-in reflective time, they’re going over yesterday’s lessons to see what went well and what didn’t.

Observations come fast: What do kids need to walk away with in a particularly dense math lesson? Great! A student is learning to strategize! Another kid needs encouragement. Another isn’t showing resilience.

Consensus: All the kids need a second day of this combined English language arts/math lesson. Now the team moves on to fresh ideas for an upcoming science unit.

Dave Sanders“Together as a team we provide a great balance for children learning and applying skills,” said Scorsone. “This school has the best working example of a master teacher program,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “The Department of Education’s master teacher pilot program in Restart and Transformation schools has been a big disappointment so far. The DOE seems unable to create a thoughtful support system that engages the school community on how best to utilize the master teacher position. I am fearful that this pilot will be yet another good idea added to the list of missed opportunities.”

At the academy, master teachers go through an intensive grassroots interview process so the right match is made.

Second-grade master teacher Lisa Parquette-Silva describes the hiring process: “We wrote essays, had phone interviews, spent the day in the building, wrote a speech about our leadership style, and met with parents, teachers and administrators.”

What makes the program great according to kindergarten master teacher Elizabeth DeAngelis is that master teachers “breathe the same air as everyone else. We’re ingrained in the classroom.”

“It keeps us humble, flexible and thinking on our feet,” says Parquette-Silva.

“The beauty of our morning sessions is sharing so we can teach each other’s lessons, take advantage of each other’s strengths,” says Chapter Leader Pepe Gutierrez. “My colleagues already have my math lessons for next week, and through them, I’m strengthening my ELA teaching.”

Everyone is allowed to make mistakes, they agree, as long as they had a good reason to make them, and learn from them.

Scorsone stresses that master teachers have to let go of some control in classes, as do all teachers.

“You’re transparent here,” she says. “It isn’t for everyone, not for teachers who want to close the door and have complete autonomy. We all know when one of us is in a bummy mood. But we’re gentle and supportive and help each other out.”

Dave SandersLisa Parquette-Silva (right), 2nd-grade master teacher, confers with partner teacher Keisha Green (left) and speech teacher Iman Elhalim. It’s a formula that seems to be working for teachers and students alike.

“I like the environment and my son is learning a lot here,” said parent volunteer Donna Maignan.

The academy is not for all kids, though. Children with certain disabilities or behavioral problems can’t handle the large uncontained spaces or successfully filter out the sensory input whirling around them. Some need more structured environments.

The joyful noise and creative chaos, the transparency and the ceding of autonomy — is it worth it?

“I’ve been teaching for 25 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s extraordinary,” Parquette-Silva says.