Why I Love Teaching in New York City at Equality with Stephanie

The following is an computer-generated summary of the video transcript.

So I actually went to college up in Vermont and then my first year teaching was up in Vermont and um as you would assume there's not much of uh there's not much diversity of in Vermont and having gone to school in Long Island my whole life and lived in the shadow of new york city. It had always been a dream of mine to teach within the city, to experience um new personalities and new individuals and to experience new cultures. So when I saw this position of equality I jumped right on it because it's just it's just a place that I always wanted to be. So I can actually answer this question from both sides. Because when I first started here at Equality I did not start as a department head. I was actually the 11th grade U. S. History teacher and we didn't have a department head when I was the U. S. History teacher, but we did have outside consultants that we worked with that administration did find for us um in order to support us and help us in our growth as educators are outside consultant Fran. We actually still worked with her today, um she's absolutely wonderful and she provides not only feedback um for the different content areas, but she also provides support with pedagogical skills with just you know sometimes just being a sounding board because it can get stressful being an educator. So even now as a department head, the one thing is that we still have these outside resources that help us to support our departments. Speaking as an administrator myself, I find that the best type of support that I can prepare, The best type of support that I can give is just remembering that everybody is a human and everybody struggles every now and then. Not everybody's going to have a perfect day and that has really benefited the relationships that I have built and fostered within this department. I find that department heads and their departments get along very well because there is that support system there. Um and then there is that realization that we're all human beings and that every now and then we all just need somebody to talk to. So I I do in general things that are departments and our staff do really see eye to eye and it creates a really great working dynamic. I would say that the relationships amongst teachers are good. I think actually in the six years that I've been here, I think they've actually developed and expanded more. I think when I first was here, I think you saw relationships building within like separate islands, right? So if you were in the history department, you're friends with history apartment. If you're an english department, you're friends with the english department. As the years have progressed, the longer I've been here, the more I have seen these interactions and this cross curriculum work that has been happening between our teachers and I really genuinely think that all of our staff really do get along and and that's really nice to say, the school environment that we have here is unlike anything I've ever experienced before. The relationships that Stefan scholars have is nothing like I ever remember having in high school. Um, I think there's a genuine level of, of love and support that really fosters a nurturing environment for our students to teach in. Um, but that takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of time. Um, so as long as you're willing to put in the work and put in the time, I really think being a member of the equality staff is a going to be an extremely rewarding experience for anybody who joins the staff.