- Describe the work you’ll be doing with Highlander Institute:
At Highlander, I will be researching two areas of development within the agency. The first will be the strategies and tools we use to support teachers in blended and personalized learning implementation through classroom walkthroughs and observations. My research into the online platform we use and the techniques employed to deliver the best feedback for teachers will be centered around the goal of optimizing the performance of the agency in substantively supporting teachers’ practice. I will also conduct research around the Rhode Island process to access alternative teacher certification pathways. While my research questions around this topic are evolving the more I explore, they consider fundamentally how Highlander Institute can best position itself as a facilitator of quality, non-traditional preparation options to diversify and bolster the RI teacher force.
- What’s your background?
Prior to joining Highlander, I completed a traditional teacher preparation program in Rhode Island and taught Grade 6 Geography and History Enrichment in a Massachusetts urban public school. During this time, the quality and diversity of the teacher preparation portfolio became a research interest of mine. I also worked in a semi-administrative capacity in the summer programming office at BMC Durfee High School, where I helped oversee a collection of grant-funded OST programs targeting different subgroups of the Fall River student population, including early learners, secondary students, students in credit recovery, and students transitioning to employment in the community.
- What are you most looking forward to with this new position?
In my new role at Highlander, I most look forward to tracking the translation of research to practice regarding my contributions to the agency’s knowledge growth. I am most excited about watching how brainstorming, research, and thought partnerships within the agency and our partners can lead to substantive support for teachers, and tangible, positive outcomes for all of the students they reach.
- What’s your self professed superpower?
I would say listening is my “superpower,” both because it has allowed me to access the ways my colleagues process and reproduce information, and has made me a better teammate and thought partner. I also have absolute pitch, which is a rare listening skill that allows you differentiate and identify music notes categorically, like colors.
- Any other thoughts you’d like to share?
Let us all remember to take History into account in our daily decision-making. In doing this, we come to realize that History is much more about now than it is about then.
Also, I’m your go-to-guy for tips for guitar-players and obscure facts.
