Academy Preps 110 New-To-New Haven Teachers

Four tips for new New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) teachers:

1. Consistently communicate with parents about their students’ positive and negative behaviors throughout the year.

2. Restorative practice can save lives. 

3. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. 

4. Prioritize creating classroom procedures before a ​“cute classroom.”

That was some of the advice shared with 110 New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) new educators who gathered this week at the district’s three-day new teacher academy hosted at the the Floyd Little Athletic Center next to Hillhouse High School on Sherman Parkway. 

This year’s orientation for getting the new educators in NHPS prepared for the 2023 – 24 school year, which starts on Aug. 31, ran on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week. In the past, the orientation was hosted for two days only. 

NHPS Director of Professional Learning and Leadership Development Edith Johnson took over organizing the academy last year. She worked closely with several teacher leaders in the district this year to plan out the key info necessary to provide new educators with the goal of helping them towards a successful first year. 

As of Friday, the schools spokesperson said NHPS has hired 140 new educators. 

Last year, the academy prepped 141 new NHPS educators. This year it will prepare 110 new educators with a three-day series touching on topics like mandated reporter training, building classroom community, and opportunities for educator development in NHPS. 

For the first day of workshops on Wednesday, district leaders helped the new educators understand and connect to their purpose in the district. They reviewed the district’s strategic plan, learned about the teachers union, human resources, and the district’s technology for the first three hours. Then they went on to learn about NHPS’ restorative practice work and the Code of Conduct. 

Throughout Wednesday’s orientation, the new staffers also practiced logging into their teacher networks. 

On Thursday, the orientation schedule aimed to connect the educators to their curriculums with workshops for their department curriculum supervisors. 

On Friday, educators would spend the final day connecting to their school communities through conversations about key populations like multilingual learners and special education students. 

Johnson explained that the orientation serves as a chance to not only get critical information to the staffers about working in New Haven, but also gives them the chance to meet and connect with their colleagues and district staff. Key information points were incorporated into the three-day agenda with the help of current veteran lead teachers in the district. 

“Tech prep is much more robust this year,” said Elm City Montessori magnet resource teacher Dave Weinreb, who worked alongside Johnson to plan this year’s academy. 

The four teacher leaders that helped to plan the orientation with Johnson included Weinreb, Hillhouse PE teacher Robert Voelker, Davis math coach Elizabeth Black, Troup instructional math coach Keisha Hogan, and Troup sixth grade teacher Da’Jhon Jett. 

Prepping for the first weeks of the year is vital, Johnson said, to having an impactful and engaging school year. 

One addition to the this year’s orientation for new educators is a planned Friday session that will teach educators new to New Haven about its neighborhoods through an asset mapping session and bus tour through Fair Haven, Newhallville, and the Hill, led by neighborhood leaders. 

Weinreb said this will help educators new to the city to better understand their students and learn about the strengths of the neighborhoods. 

At the end of each orientation day, which ran from 8:30 a.m to 3 p.m, new staff were given the opportunity to stick around to have time to plan out their first weeks with support from district leaders and veteran teachers. 

An estimated 30 percent of the new educators are veteran teachers with at least five years of experience in another school district.

Throughout the school year Johnson plans to continue organizing virtual professional development and information sessions for the new staff to continue to learn. 

At Wednesday’s orientation was incoming seventh and eighth grade social studies teacher at Benjamin Jepson, Trevor Knight, who said he most looks forward to meeting his co-workers and students this school year. 

Knight, who is from Bridgeport, was previously a substitute teacher in New Canaan and Wilton. 

He was joined at a table during the orientation by new educators who are uprooting from California, Colorado, and New York to join NHPS.

He said he enjoyed the ​“burst of information” Wednesday and looks forward to being around a team similarly excited to teach. 

So far Knight said he’s spent about ten hours setting up his classroom and just enjoying being in the new professional space. 

Over the past week his days have included making and placing labels on all items in his classroom and making pre-recorded videos of himself that will demonstrate to his students his classroom protocols. 

“It feels good to know that as a new teacher there’s all these people excited about our success. That’s greatly valued,” he said. ​“They’re planting seeds for our success.” 

He said he looks forward to future sessions to learn about strategies to teach multilingual students. 

Knight said he’s spent a lot of time over the years in New Haven and looks forward to using that to his advantage to connect better with his students. 

He added that the bus tour session is an important one for the staff who are not familiar with New Haven. 

"Restorative Practice Saved My Life"

During a Wednesday presentation called ​“Re-centering the Whole Child through Restorative Practices,” restorative practice coach Nakisha Cadore gave new teachers tips for supporting their students this school year. 

Cadore trained alongside Cameo Thorne, who retired from the district after two decades of teaching and spearheading the district’s work with restorative practice. 

She emphasized that restorative practice can be more effective than traditional punitive models because it works to identify the root of the issue, which is typically a student need not being met, resulting in a disruptive, disengaged, or absent student. 

Cadore shared her story with the new teachers on Wednesday about her own experience with restorative work years ago while a student at Amistad high school. 

“Restorative practice saved my life,” she recalled. 

During Cadore’s freshmen year she got into a fight with another student and was suspended. Upon returning to school she was sat down with her parents, administrators, and the other student and their parents to talk through the situation and why it happened. 

She recalled asking herself during the restorative circle, ​“if I continue this, what is going to happen to me.”

At the start of the group conversation, Cadore said she and the other student ​“came in there ready to go against each other” but as it continued and she and the other student explained their feelings, they learned the two each felt they were lacking respect from the other and therefore it resulted in a fight.

By the end of the circle everyone involved had shed some tears.

Click here to view Cadore’s presentation. 

Cadore emphasized to the educators that most youth don’t have the skills yet to navigate and express their emotions until faced with it directly. This is what restorative circles do, she said. 

She encouraged the group to incorporate daily check-ins with their students at the start of their classes by having them describe their mood with a symbol, temperature rating, thumbs up or down, or other methods. 

She practiced the check-in method with Wednesday’s educators, who she asked to pick a symbol then describe their current mood. Some described themselves as a question mark, while others said a lightbulb. 

“When you have a temperature on how our students are feeling, we know who to check in with,” Cadore said. 

Cadore also encouraged the educators to use restorative circles as proactive relationship building opportunities in their classes. They help to build trust with the students and educators, she said. 

This was especially suggested to educators working with first-year high school students and seventh and eighth grade teachers because district data, Cadore said, shows that those populations of students have the highest chronic absenteeism rates because they struggle with connecting to others. 

One teacher asked how they are supposed to fit restorative circles or check-ins into their time-limited class periods. ​“I can’t do this in all four of my English classes,” she said. 

Cadore responded that check-ins can be a simple five minutes at the start of class and if done can help educators to know how their students are arriving to school each day.

“Spending those five minutes in your class might save you from spending your entire class period putting out mini fires,” Cadore said. 

Also in attendance at Wednesday’s orientation was new special education elementary teacher Christina McIntyre, who said she looks forward to working in a self-contained classroom at Barack Obama School. 

McIntyre, who is originally from New York but moved to Connecticut three years ago, previously worked as an assistant teacher. 

Her previous work with a variety of grade levels motivated her to pursue special education work because ​“every plant needs sun and water but they all need different amounts,” she said 

McIntyre said she enjoyed Wednesday’s presentation about restorative practice because she’s been recently doing research on the work and believes it’s very effective. 

“It’s good to know the system is adapting and growing,” she said. 

Toward the end of Wednesday’s orientation, second-year Davis Academy teachers Lauren Dooley, who teaches fifth grade, and Catherine Hall, who teaches fourth grade, shared with the new staff the challenges they faced their first year and gave tips on how they overcame the many obstacles presented to them. 

Dooley said ​“the first thing that got me through my first year was my relationships with my co-workers.” She added that opportunities for professional development throughout the year and summer workshops were also helpful to her. 

“I had a rough year,” Hall admitted. 

During her first year Hall learned that you have to teach as a team not just with co-workers but with student families. She advised the new educators to maintain consistent communication with parents because ​“if you don’t, it’s going to bite you.” 

She suggested contacting parents for student accomplishments and needs to build a trusting relationship. 

Hall also suggested the educators use their prep time to its fullest and to figure out classroom procedures before focusing on having a ​“cute classroom.” 

Finally the duo advised the new educators to not be afraid to ask for help.