Roberto answers the question:
What continues to INSPIRE you to teach?

Teaching to Transform

Teachers who embrace teaching as a transformative career commit to always being in transformation themselves. We are willing to inquire into our beliefs, assumptions, stances and values in light of new learning emerging from our experiences, readings, and discourse with others. We are inspired to adapt our instruction each year to what we learn about — as well as from — our students. We understand that listening and observing are essential components of authentic teaching. We see ourselves preparing to take a leadership role in our schools, helping to make engaging, high quality instruction not only the right — but the reality — of every child.

Read what inspires us about being a member of the teacher education program:

Jeanne Vissa
Practice Professor, Instructor, Secondary Mathematics Methods

“I am always revising my syllabus to develop more images of teaching mathematics productively in urban environments. I make a point of integrating artifacts that previous students have produced that inspire all of us with a sense of the possible. I want prospective students to know that there are heroes out there, and that the lengths to which they are willing to go in their reflection and preparation represent values shared by other cutting-edge math educators.”


Joan Goodman
Professor, Instructor, Development of the Young Child

“For some time a major divide in education had been between the traditional and progressive schools of thought, between teacher-centered and child-centered approaches. I prefer to highlight a third dimension: the creation of a deeply meaningful common mission that transcends the teacher versus student dichotomy by claiming the loyalty of both.”


Kathy Schultz
Associate Professor, Instructor, Literacy Methods for Elementary and Middle Schools

“A central aim of my teaching is to introduce prospective teachers to ways of teaching reading and writing based on listening closely to students and their communities, hearing what they say, and acting on that knowledge. My goal is to prepare teachers to adapt their teaching to the children and the contexts in which they teach, by listening carefully to individual children--in and out of school—and to the rhythms and silences of their classrooms as a whole. We do this by paying close attention to how children learn to read and write and building pedagogy from that knowledge.”


Susan Yoon
Assistant Professor, Instructor, Secondary Science Methods

“To cope with the demands of the 21st century, people need to know more than core subjects. They need to know how to use their knowledge and skills—by thinking critically, applying knowledge to new situations, analyzing information, comprehending new ideas, communicating, collaborating, solving problems, making decisions.” Partnership for 21st Century Learning, 2004, p. 9)


Michelle Loucas
Coordinator, Secondary Education and Instructor, Teaching and Learning in Urban Contexts

“My hope is that we prepare our students to become ‘advanced beginners’ in understanding their students, school and community contexts, and the field of education writ large, but just as importantly, in understanding their own values and beliefs with regard to teaching and learning. I strive to help students ask themselves questions like: Why do I want to teach? How do I define authentic learning? What are my fundamental hopes for my students? If GSE students can begin to articulate these questions and to teach in ways that extends their understanding, they will be equipped to practice in a variety of settings and eras, no matter what institutional or political forces are at play.”