Aliyya Swaby Photo
Tim Shortt, New Haven’s new “teacher of the year,” chose an unusual way to get his second-graders to learn about the 50 states: He sends them on “mystery Skype” dates with people across the country to divine their residence through savvy geographical queries.
Does your state border an ocean? Is it landlocked? Is it in the Eastern time zone?
For guests on the East Coast, they pick a reference state in the middle: Are you north or south of Maryland?
After each answer, they regroup and refine their question.
Shortt, a 12-year teaching veteran, now at Worthington Hooker Elementary School was named 2015’s Teacher of the Year last Tuesday by the New Haven Public School district.
He said his class works better when his students run the show.
“As teachers, we do too much, and take away from the kids,” he said.
On Friday morning, the class prepared to take a field trip to Common Ground High School’s farm to learn how to shear sheep.
One student’s rendering of sheep.
Students wrote down what they knew about sheep and wool, then settled on the rug in small groups to discuss. Shortt read them a picture book called Charlie Needs a Cloak. The book is above their reading level, but the accompanying pictures helped them read subtext and make inferences about the plot.
Most students noticed in the illustrations that while Charlie was making his cloak, one of his sheep was nibbling all of the materials and a mouse whisked away his supplies.
“What is a cloak?” Shortt asked.
“A big wool … shaped into a jacket thing,” one student responded.
From Sales To The Classroom
Shortt is on his second career; he switched to teaching from sales at the age of 40. He sold veterinary supplies and equipment in Branford, which he enjoyed. But when he realized any promotion would involve travel for the majority of the week and time away from his wife and two sons, he turned his sights to a teaching certification program.
“I think there’s a lot of value of teachers with other careers before they go into teaching,” he said. “More life experience.”
His previous life experience as a salesman taught him how to cater to individual needs and personalities in and out of the classroom.
Now his sons are 23 and 25 years old. Shortt said he feels like a grandparent with his second-graders: “I have fun, play with them, and then they go home.”
He didn’t start out as a good teacher, he said. His first year out of Southern Connecticut State University’s teaching program in 2000, he was “not prepared” to lead his classroom at Timothy Dwight Elementary School. At the time, the program included some student teaching but not much observation of other teachers.
“I felt like the only thing that prepared me was being in the classroom,” he said.
Now he’s comfortable enough leading a class that he can let go of the reins. Besides mystery Skype dates, Shortt’s second-graders also video chat with experts such as oceanographic explorer Fabien Cousteau while he was at the bottom of the Atlantic.
Shortt said Worthington Hooker has “limited” technological resources, with old computers and a spotty wireless connection in his classroom.
He connects his personal laptop to a projector in the art or music rooms, which have better wireless — a process that can take an hour, he said.
Outside of the classroom, Shortt coaches free, informal tennis lessons using a court at Wilbur Cross High School. A member of several leadership teams at Worthington Hooker, he plans to go back to school and get certified as an administrator.
But he does not want to stop teaching. Preparing for Friday’s farm field trip, he told his class to come up with a few questions they had about the process of producing wool. They would write them down on index cards and bring them on the bus ride over.
Students wiggled with excitement as they headed back to their seats.
“Capiche?” Shortt asked the class, after running through the instructions.
“Capache,” his students called back.