Teaching Policy Fellow Adam Gray: Massachusetts Teacher of the Year Acceptance Speech
To the members of the selection committee and the Massachusetts Department of Education, thank you for this award. I am truly humbled to be selected.
Teaching at an urban school is physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding. But at the same time, it is also the most rewarding and fulfilling job I can possibly imagine. So let me start off by saying that I love teaching at Monument High School, and I hope to shed light on the inspiration I have drawn from my students and colleagues in the next few minutes.
I began my career in the Boston Public Schools in 2006. I was 23 years old. Like most first year teachers in urban schools, I struggled. In my first month of work I lost 15 pounds on what I like to call the hypertension diet. I also remember that my first waking thought every day at 5:00am was whether or not the copy machine would decide to cooperate on that particular day. Double sided and collating were typically no big deal, but using its staple function was a daily Pandora’s box.
My students, including Jennifer, very much enjoyed rashing me, which, to all of us here born before 1990, means me; which, to all of us here born before 1960, means making fun of me. Students used to ask me if I wanted a quarter-pounder and an order of fries with my worksheets. At first I thought they were trying to help me put some weight back on, but I soon realized that they were actually making fun of my hairline. Jennifer and Company recognized that my widow’s peaks formed a pair of beautiful arches on my forehead, and had ever-so-thoughtfully nicknamed me Ronald McDonald. Like many moments in my first year, I was unsure whether to find this endearing or disrespectful, but I decided to roll with it. I have to admit, it was pretty clever. All jokes aside, though, I was a mess. 15-hour days and sleepless nights caused me to rethink my career choice on more than one occasion.
In late September of that same year, I was walking by my colleague Jamie Doherty’s classroom. Jamie and I taught on the 10th grade team, so he had the same students for his English class that I had for math. I decided to peek through his window and see how our more z’spirited” students were behaving. To my astonishment, each and every student who was rarely on-task in my room was working attentively and diligently in Jamie’s. I felt incompetent, less like a teacher and more like the fast-food clown of my namesake. I realized something very profound in that moment, something that changed the way I view teaching and the role I play in my students’ education. Seeing Jamie’s success’ with my own students’ showed me that a more positive and productive classroom was possible, and that it was my responsibility to create that environment. Ronald had to go.
This was the turning point in my career as a teacher. In the weeks and months that ensued, I made no excuses for myself or my students. Employing unwavering high expectations, collaboration with my team, and self-reflection, I found that daily student outcomes began to increase at a rate inversely proportional to the decrease in my blood pressure. Sorry, I had to drop a little math in here somewhere.Research has shown that the most significant factor in student achievement is not race, gender, or socioeconomic background, but rather teacher quality. Jamie proved this to me in practice before I ever even learned the theory.
Over the years, I have learned that motivating students to embrace academic challenges is a two-part process. I first work towards changing their perception of their own ability to be intelligent and successful. I must convince them that regardless of any circumstance in their lives, they can reach their academic goals, provided only that they follow a path of consistent and purposeful work ethic. Just as I became a better teacher after Jamie demonstrated that it was within my ability to create a productive classroom, my students find greater success when I can persuade them that they do indeed have a road map to individual achievement.
Secondly, I try to inspire students to see the world that exists beyond their neighborhood, a world that they can access with the great equalizer of education. For my students, an academic test without context is seen as an obstacle at best, and a minefield at worst – all stick and no carrot. That same test, given in the context of the pursuit of a larger goal, becomes a challenge to be met on the road to a fulfilling future. As a teacher it is of paramount importance that my students see their work as a challenge, not an obstacle; that they are driven by the ambition to better themselves, not discouraged by the fear of failure.
I want to conclude by thanking the people who have most inspired me to be here today: my students. At the end of every school year, I make a point to write individual letters of reflection and encouragement to each of the young men and women I teach. They’re most often filled with rambling words of inspiration, dorky anecdotes and analogies, and occasionally a genuine insight into the individual’s life and purpose. A couple of years ago, as I was writing one such letter and found my soliloquy spilling onto the fourth handwritten page, I stopped and thought, What am I doing? Why am I writing half of a Goosebumps book to a kid whose only interest is to get to the beach and enjoy the summer? It didn’t take much reflection to realize, then as is now, that I wrote to acknowledge the deep inspiration and wisdom that I draw from my students every day.
Two of them are present today Jennifer and Andres Mejia. You both validate the investment of emotion and time that we educators make every day. I have learned more about determination, perseverance, and resilience from you than you ever learned about math from me. Andres at the University of NH and Jennifer at Northeastern University, I speak on behalf of all of your teachers when I tell you that you both continue to make us proud. Know that I am not surprised by your awesomeness, but I am impressed. You inspire me and give me hope for future generations of students. Remember where you came from as you find your places in this world, and make it a part of your mission in life to give back to your communities, so that others will know that they too can be successful like you.
Thank you all for being here, and thank you again for this great honor.
