Massachusetts Teacher of the Year presentation at the Board of Ed: Cara Pekarcik

Cara Pekarcik: honor to represent teachers in the Commonwealth as teacher of the year
a career changer: started as a marine biologist, now a biology teacher
"wonderful opportunity" to be a career changer, supports that path being available
focus on "things for me to have as goals"

• doing, not just seeing
• scientific literacy
• personal growth
• connected educator
• empathy and SEL

"safe, structured, dynamic, engaging learning environment for my students and for myself"
hands on projects for students to bring more to their learning
"bring real things into my classroom"
"these were students in my classroom that were very skeptical about having this woman come into my classroom"
"...amazing for them"
"I am not an expert in everything that I teach...so why not allow experts in the field to come and share with your students"
"find organizations and places where students might be able to involve themselves in the classroom"
scientific literacy: important for them to read about current science topics
advocate for professional development
"important to care about my students"
teachers teach because they want to teach
make teachers feel as if they are valued in their community; not as valued as it used to be
"I don't feel that I am looked at like a professional in the community like I should be"
important to explicitly express the value of teachers

Sagan: how do you pay for all of these?
Pekarcik: can put up pictures of what I do and maybe people think they can't
people come in voluntarily
for going out, finding grants
"if I have a student who maybe can't afford it, I'll make sure they get there"

West: important on career switchers
Pekarcik: teachers coming out of school to teacher "are awesome too"
importance of mentoring
"to know that there was a community that was supporting me"
limited time to mentoring and pushed too late
many teachers wish there was more that they could do