A feature article in TAPinto Newark today covers the New Jersey STEM Innovation Fellowship, which is modeled on MƒA and our proven teacher fellowship program in New York City. The story focuses on NJ STEM Innovation Fellow Racheal Safier, a Newark elementary school teacher, and shares her experience in the program and its impact on her teaching and students. 

“I learned how to better facilitate math instruction so that my students are doing a lot of talking. I get more insight into how my students are solving problems and how they understand mathematical concepts.”

In the story, MƒA’s Chief Operating Officer Michael Driskill spoke about the necessity of fellowships like MƒA’s and this one in New Jersey. The program’s response to the pandemic is a key example of why more professional development models like this are needed to bring expert educators together and solve the most pressing problems of practice in the classroom. 

“So often we have this deficit perspective about education - focusing on what’s not working. What often gets overlooked is that we have this tremendous resource in our exceptional teachers in our schools.

You take a teacher like Racheal and equip them with a learning community of expert peers, give them the time and space they need to think about what’s really working.”

Read the full article in  TAP into Newark.