We spoke with David McCullough, founder of the American Exchange Project, about building connections across barriers.

We spoke with Rebecca Marcus, English Teacher and Founder of Paper Paragon, whose “favorite moments aren’t even when someone says something really brilliant; it’s when you can look at a student or read their writing and see them finally making the connection, that first step that you’ve been working on for months.”

“…community matters. Teaching starts with our relationships to one another and trickles down to students.”

“…I want my students to know that I’m as much of a learner as they are. I want them to see me learning and engaging with content.”

“For me, especially as a young teacher who’s still trying to figure it out, I’ll have students who will try to take the conversation in a completely different direction than what I had planned. Then I start to get worried, and I feel I have to reel the entire class back in. My mentor, though, challenged me to let it happen and then take advantage of the tangent. I’m trying to learn to do that, instead of letting it bother me.”

“I’m working with a professor from grad school to bring authentic texts into vocabulary instruction that amplify diverse voices and expose students to issues of justice and equity. I’m interested in how we can promote a love of words as we teach students to think about their world.”

“I love the silence when we’re all together in a moment when someone’s said something that really lands. It’s an ineffable presence, not even contained in a voice. We’re all considering or holding something together — it’s that intimate kind of silence where you don’t need to speak. I teach for those kinds of moments.”

“One thing I love is when a student has that a-ha moment where they connect the concept we’re discussing with some kind of real world knowledge where the text matters. I also love when a student really listens to learn and then states that he/she has changed his or her mind.”

“…when a kid references something that another kid said in a previous class — that just shows, to me, that a kid deeply respects the humanity and intellect of their classmates and the work that we do together. They’re showing that they value discussion and showing the value of it at the same time.”

“All the magic is in the classroom.” I really agree — it’s the best place to be in a school. I was always thinking that I wanted to be a school leader, and I think that when my department head told me to live in the moment and do my best — that what was meant to be for me would be — as a young teacher, I need that perspective.