BOSTON TEACHERS

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Welcome to Boston Teachers’ Reading and Writing Group Off-Script

Mission Statement

We, a group of active and retired Boston Public School teachers, work to improve our classroom practice and continue to develop our powerful literacy skills. We pursue these goals by practicing the skills we teach: reading closely with understanding, thinking clearly and logically, and writing effectively. We prepare ourselves and our students for full participation in society, raising active voices in the public discourse on education. Through collective effort, we seek academic excellence and a more just and compassionate world for our students.

We take responsibility for the academic success or failure of our students and believe we can continue to become better teachers!

We remain “perpetually perplexed” and use writing, sharing responses to writing, and questioning as tools that force us to think deeply about our teaching philosophy, our teaching practice, and our students.

One of our members, Kristie, expressed our ultimate goal as we reflected on what makes us different from other professional programs. At a recent meeting, she reported, “Each time I was asked a question, my teaching got better! I feel as if you all are in the classroom with me!”

The Group’s Genesis – Who We Are and Why We Exist

The Teachers’ Reading and Writing Group started in 1997 at English High School and, except for a one-year hiatus, meets monthly. We accept responsibility for shaping and continuing our professional growth and development. We believe that membership and active participation in a community of learners, who take an inquiring stance on teaching, increases our effectiveness in the classroom and enables us to maintain and advance our own literacy.

We also believe that groups such as ours provide the necessary support and encouragement to remain effective in the classroom, and to acquire some degree of longevity in the public school system.

Goals & Objectives

Build and sustain a community of readers and writers.
Continue to develop our tools of scholarship.
Provide a space for reflection, exploration, and writing, especially on issues of education.
Provide the opportunity to shape our own professional development plans.
Provide support, encouragement, and inspiration for one another in our journeys as readers, writers, thinkers, life-long learners, and in our daily struggles as classroom teachers.
Encourage reflection on our practice to encourage improvement.
Become the voices for our students, and for those who labor in the classroom, and the schoolhouse.

What Makes Us Different

We make a lifetime commitment to continue reflecting on our teaching practice, and as a consequence, re-evaluate and make adjustments, with the intent of improving and becoming more effective teachers.

We take responsibility for the academic success or failure of our students and believe we can continue to become better teachers!

What Keeps Us Together

We share a deep respect and love for our students. We share and enact the beliefs that our students have the ability to learn and possess an innate desire to excel. No child wants to fail!

We share a commitment to our role as teachers and view teaching as “life’s work” and a “glorious calling.”
We share the belief that teaching is a potent method for achieving social and academic justice for those, who more often than not, lag behind – our students.

Con't

“As teachers, we deal with people, with children, adolescents, and adults. We are intrinsically connected to them in their process of discovery…. with responsibility, scientific preparation, and a taste for teaching, with seriousness and testimony to the struggle against injustice, we can also contribute to the gradual transformation of learners into strong presences in the world.”
__ Paulo Freire, Teachers as Cultural Workers, Third Letter

Testimonials

What we gained from the Group

(1997-1998)

4.8

★

2,394 Ratings

Google Reviews

“Knowledge of new materials (books) in education.”

★

“I liked the opportunity to be collegial and to talk about issues with teachers without a lot of negativity.”

★

“The readings have made me reflect on my teaching. It has forced me to take the time to read and reflect.”

★

“Reading the various books helped me reflect on what I’m doing. It has helped me rethink my role as a teacher.”

★

“Makes me think more about some issues.”

★

“My work and life have been strongly influenced by the Teacher’s Reading and Writing Group at English High. The group has become my example, inspiration, and shelter.”

★

(2020-2021)

“I treasure this group for the levels of support and the opportunities for learning it provides.”

★

“We have many years of experience in the urban classroom. There is much to learn from each other.”

★

“I never would have discovered these titles on my own. Our readings deepen my understanding of my students’ lives and cultures. The group provides a place for a continuing dialogue on educational inequality in the BPS and in America.”

★

154

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visitors

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