The Michigan Education Teaching School grows to reach important milestones in fourth year

SOE Dean Elizabeth Birr Moje says, "As we welcome our first elementary educators into the Teaching School, we also celebrate Ms. Sneha Rathi's accomplishment of completing the three-year residency. Even as she was honing her skills as a new teacher, Ms. Rathi brought skill and dedication to her work. She supported her students through the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthened her own practice with the support of the outstanding teaching team at TSM and her mentors at the SOE." 

Rathi, who joined the inaugural teaching staff as its first resident in 2019, has now completed her residency but she isn’t leaving the team. As of this fall, Ms. Rathi has a new title: Chief of Residents (a position that will rotate through residents over time). Having benefited from three years of support as a resident in her early teaching career, Rathi is now practicing that same mentorship as she coaches incoming residents herself. 

“Sneha knows exactly what our residents are going through, because she just went through it,” says Dr. Alistair Robinson Bomphray, P-20 Curriculum and Teacher Education Coordinator. In her new role, Rathi leads a monthly seminar for the four current secondary residents. “She’ll work with them individually during the week as well, going into their classes and helping them plan. We try to make sure that all of the support that we’re giving residents is responsive to what they’re asking for.”

Another member of the team who supports residents is Dr. Darin Stockdill, Instructional and Program Design Coordinator for SOE’s CEDER and a former social studies teacher. Stockdill is now in his second year supporting Lindsay Helfman through her residency. He says responding to scheduling and curricular challenges associated with the pandemic occupied much of their first year working together. In their second year as “thought partners,” the mentor-mentee pair have been able to focus on co-developing a social studies curriculum for 11th graders that incorporates project- and place-based learning.

“Last year was phase one of teaching high school world history at Marygrove,” says Stockdill. “It was the first year there was an 11th grade, so it was all kind of new. This year we’re working with the material Lindsay implemented last year, and refining it.” For instance, they've been able to spend time embedding more literacy instruction into the curriculum as it continues to evolve.

Attending teachers in the school assume critical roles teaching classes while mentoring interns and residents. Mr. Michael Chrzan is simultaneously teaching mathematics and serving as an attending teacher for six mathematics interns this year. The math interns rotate through different math courses at TSM, but practice teach in Mr. Chrzan's classroom, under his supervision. He also serves as their field instructor, an innovation on the typical practice of field instructors coming from the university and traveling to multiple school sites to observe their interns. This move is in keeping with the goal to build a space in which every professional has two goals: enhancing children's learning and developing and honing the skills of new youth-serving professionals.

Moje is encouraged by the growth of the Teaching School and eager to continue honing the model. “Like the first images sent from new satellites after years of work, we are getting our first clear picture of the 'intergenerational' community of practice we aimed to cultivate with the Teaching School. And we are actively studying this model in order to replicate its successes,” she says.