De'Shawn Washington is the 2024 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year. De'Shawn C. Washington teaches a fourth-grade inclusion classroom at Maria Hastings Elementary School in Lexington. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance from the University of Massachusetts Boston, and he also holds a Master of Education in Elementary Education and a Master of Education in Special Education from the same university. He is working on a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy from Vanderbilt University. In addition to teaching, Washington is a member of his district's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Community Input Team; Elementary Schedule Review Committee; and Student Success Team. He is also a member of the School Site Council. Prior to his work in Lexington, he taught in Boston Public Schools. Outside of school, he runs workshops at UMass Boston to help pre-service teachers pass the Massachusetts Tests for Education Licensure, has presented and published on the subject of culturally responsive instruction, and volunteers at his church and as a Big Brother. He received Lexington Public Schools' Core Values Award in April 2021 for building and sustaining a sense of community in his classroom, and as part of his practice, he develops his students' ability to work together and resolve disagreements. Washington believes his role is to cultivate changemakers, and his students have successfully advocated for policies such as a different recess structure.
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Jamil Siddiqui has spent the last 30 years teaching mathematics at East Bridgewater Junior/Senior High School. Over the course of his career, Jamil has taught classes across the department; however, he specializes in teaching Advanced Placement Calculus. He believes that anyone is capable of succeeding if they are willing to work hard and give their best effort, and he encourages students with varying abilities to be successful in his class. He tells his students their thought process, their effort, and their ability to communicate their ideas are far more important than the final answers they are trying to find. Jamil firmly believes all students can be successful by working hard, improving, and not being afraid to try.
When speaking with Jamil, one can immediately sense his love for mathematics. His advice to teachers has been, "You have to love something. You love your subject, or you have to love your students." He can often be found after school and on weekends providing extra help to students who may be struggling. These experiences encouraged 18 of his former students to be mathematics teachers. Outside of school, Jamil has worked closely with Mass Insight Education as a mathematics lead teacher since 2012, and has served as a College Board consultant for AP Calculus since 2014. In 2019 he was selected as the Massachusetts State Teacher of the Year and The Presidential Award winner for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. In 2020 Jamil became a member of the National Teachers Hall of Fame. Jamil received his bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering from Boston University and then earned master's degrees in teaching and pure mathematics, also from Boston University. |
Shelley Terry, a Milken Educator award winner, is the ELA department head and teaches co-taught inclusion American Literature, AP Language and Composition, and Broadcast Journalism at Plymouth North High School. She created Plymouth North News (PNN) which has been nationally recognized as a top high school news program. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Teaching and Justice Studies from the University of New Hampshire, and she also holds a Master of Arts in Teaching in English from Bridgewater State University. In addition to teaching, Terry is the advisor of the school newspaper, The Eagle, and also serves as the co-advisor of the Massasoit chapter of the National Honor Society. Terry believes her role is to meet students where they are at while pushing them to meet their greatest potential.
Student interview with 'Knockout' the drug dealer reveals opioid source |
Jessica Lander is an award-winning teacher, writer and author. She teaches history and civics to recent immigrant students in a Massachusetts public high school and has won numerous awards for her teaching, including being named the 2023 Massachusetts History Teacher of the Year, presented by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History; a 2023 MA Teacher of the Year Finalist, presented by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; and a Top 50 Finalist for the Global Teacher Prize in 2021, presented by the Varkey Foundation. Jessica writes frequently about education policy and teaching. She is the author of Making Americans: Stories of Historic Struggles, New Ideas, and Inspiration in Immigrant Education, a coauthor of Powerful Partnerships: A Teacher’s Guide to Engaging Families for Student Success and the author of Driving Backwards.
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Raised in Mallorca, Spain, Elsa Herraez Hernandez holds a Bachelor of Science degree, a Master of Science degree in Biotechnology from the University of Barcelona, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Oncology from the German Cancer Research Center. Prior to joining Monument Mountain Regional High School in January 2016 as a Science teacher, she worked as a postdoc scientist at a biotechnology company.
Teaching a variety of STEAM courses at her school, including Math for English learners, Biology, AP Biology, HealthCare, and Anatomy & Physiology, Elsa has also served as a teacher to young scientists in Molecular Biology and provided instruction in clinical laboratories. Beyond the classroom, she collaborates with students on independent studies and research projects, exploring topics such as student perception of effective instruction, grading, and engagement. As a mentor to young researchers, Elsa believes that motivating students by nurturing their natural curiosity is essential for creating lasting memories. One of her students expressed this sentiment, saying: "Ms. Hernandez turned us into real scientists!" Elsa's commitment to engaging students in meaningful and complex thinking makes science accessible and enjoyable for all her students. Elsa is a 2022-2024 DESE Rethinking Grading fellow, a TeachPlus Policy fellow for 2023-2024, and a 2023 MA finalist for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. She has organized student trips to other countries and attended multiple professional learning opportunities, including studying sharks at a marine station in the Bahamas! |
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A proud BPS graduate who received a full academic scholarship to attend an HBCU, where her passion for learning, mentoring and leadership developed. Raushanah began her teaching career in 2015 after working for over 14 years as an civil-environmental project engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers. Her true passion is advancing opportunities for students in STEM through educational outreach and by promoting inclusion in engineering and related careers, especially for underrepresented student groups from Boston. Raushanah earned two master’s degrees, one in engineering management from Tufts University and another in secondary education at UMASS Boston. Since changing careers, Raushanah has worked as a STEM specialist within the Boston Public Schools and uses an integrated approach to teaching science, engineering design, physics, coding, digital and financial literacy in grades K-12. Additionally, she has worked in education settings within the Department of Youth Services, where she integrated math, HiSET test prep, and career readiness skills. In addition to her classroom teaching, she continues her volunteer work in community outreach and public service, tutoring math, curating STEM enrichment, summer programs and camps. Her aspirations for teaching are influenced by some of her first teachers, including her father, a retired math teacher who hoped to become a civil engineer. Of teaching, Raushanah says, “I feel most fulfilled when I am able to be creative. Being able to continuously learn and share new things is what makes teaching so fun.”
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Jennifer Hedrington is the Massachusetts Teacher of the Year 2021. She has been teaching for 18 years. While attending Law School, she found her calling to become an educator. Her teaching philosophy is teaching in color through the lenses of love, which allows her to educate the whole child while celebrating the uniqueness of each student. Jennifer understands that teachers are a powerful motivating force in the lives of students and have the ability to shape society's next superhero or villain.
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A Massachusetts native who began teaching in New Jersey for the first decade of her career, Ms. Charbonneau has been a journeyman teacher for 19 years in front of classrooms in four districts across two states. Different students in different schools have many of the same problems, she has learned, and she strives to recruit new educators not only into education, but into the somehow radical idea that high school shouldn’t be awful, or, as one of her own students once put it, “school doesn’t have to suck.” Ms. Charbonneau was the Massachusetts Teacher of the Year for 2023.
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