[On a blue background, the Brandeis seal is shown above white text that reads: Brandeis University. Teacher Leadership Program (ED M). Celebrating the Class of 2020.
A slideshow plays.
Matthew Burns and Marcy Brewer are shown wearing nametags at an event looking over a shared file.
Ashley Peper, Jessie Heller, and Summer Gottleib sit at desks in a classroom, each holding a pen and with a notebook open before them. They are shown collaborating, facing each other, as the woman in the center speaks.
Hanna Rothschild, Michelle Chan, and another woman sit at desks in a classroom, also collaborating.
Matthew and Morgan King sit beside each other in a classroom. A woman sits, facing them. Aviva Scheur stands before them and smiles at the camera, holding a stack of papers.
A row of students are shown sitting in desks against the walls, all with laptops open before them.
Carl Atwood and woman smile in a picture.
Hannah and Summersmile for a picture in a restaurant's booth. Hannah holds her phone up to her ear. Summer has her arm over Hannah's shoulders.
Matthew and Ned Rossiter sit in armchairs. Ned looks down through his glasses, with a hand propped on his chin, appearing to be deep in thought.
Nehama Libman smiles beside a hand drawn poster.
A group of people wearing name tags are shown sitting around a circular table.
Seven people are shown standing. Jessie stands in the center and raises her hand.
Andreea Adereth, Aviva, Carl, and Hannah pose for a picture together indoors, smiling.
Margery Sokoloff, Tamar Jeniski, and Morgan are shown midconversation.
Andreea is shown standing in a lecture hall, holding a microphone. Out of focus behind her, a woman watches from the audience.
Nehama, Ashley, and Summer sit at desks, all smiling at something out of frame.
Marcie Brewer is shown at the front of a classroom, smiling.
Nehama is shown at the front of a classroom before a presentation. She holds a clicker and piece of paper, and is shown speaking.
Marya Levenson is shown seated with one hand raised as she speaks. Tamar and Morgan sit next to her, and turn their heads to look at her.
Milka Eliav and another woman wear backpacks are shown speaking.
Tamar is shown standing before a class or two other women. She holds papers in one hand and a clicker in the other.
Ashley is shown wearing a nametag while speaking to two other women. Her arms are crossed, and she smiles brightly.
Michelle is shown in a classroom in conversation with Carl and another person.
Hannah is shown with a hand raised emphatically as she speaks to another person.
Matthew is shown in class, seated at a desk with a blue cup on the table. He holds up two hands about a foot apart, palms facing each other. Behind him, Hannah and Marya can be seen with large smiles on their faces. Ned sits in a desk beside him.
Sharon Feiman-Nemser is shown in a classroom, sitting at a desk, speaking to Tamar. Another pair of women do the same in the background.
Morgan smiles at a man and woman whose backs face are shown.
Matthew is shown outside among other students. His arms are lifted, bent, and his index finger and thumb touch, and circle his eyes. His other fingers frame the sides of his face.
Milka, Andreea, Hannah, and Summer smile together outside.
Elana Bailes is shown standing before a microphone in a audience, smiling.
Jessie is shown before a microphone, smiling.
Marcie and Morgan smile in a picture together.
Michelle and Elana smile in a selfie, holding up large cups of red sangria.
[A blue-tinted slide shows the Shapiro Science Center. It reads:
Marya Levenson is shown before a white wall.]
Marya Levenson: Good morning. I'm Marya Levenson, one of the co-directors of the Brandeis Teacher Leadership Program. On behalf of Sharon Feiman-Nemser, my co-host, Margery Sokoloff, the assistant director who ably organized this graduation and so much more, and our dedicated faculty and coaches, it is my pleasure to welcome you to this celebration of the 2020 Teacher Leaders who have successfully completed the two-year EDM program. We are truly sorry that we will not be able to be in person this year, but doing a virtual mini commencement does enable more family and friends who might be not be able to travel to Waltham. Welcome to all of you and to Professor Leah Gordon, the director of the Education Program, who is joining us this morning. Before we start, could you please join me in a moment of silence for the tragic deaths caused by racism and the Coronavirus. Thank you.
I now want to begin our celebration by recognizing that our graduates are working in different public, charter and Jewish day schools. You may be in different schools but you have found that you have much in common as you came together to learn the skills and understandings needed to be exemplary teacher leaders. As Sharon notes, the Brandeis Teacher Leadership Program is dedicated to preparing teacher leaders who are lead learners, respected teachers who develop the skills and judgment to work with colleagues to address an adaptive issue in their schools. Our curriculum has two through lines with courses focused on 1) how to work with colleagues to strengthen teaching and learning and 2) how to modify the adult culture so that each school will be a supportive place for all teachers, students and community members.
Over the past two years, we have been able to observe your impressive growth and development as teacher leaders. Our program has encouraged you to articulate and act on a vision of education that challenges and supports diverse learners. We were so impressed this past April 30th when you shared your teacher research which has enabled you to be more reflective practitioners. We are also pleased that you've been able to talk with each other and us about the current, strange world where inequities are becoming even more evident and deadly. We hope that we have helped you understand and face the reality that change can be hard, involving issues of relational trust, politics and difficult conversations. We know that you have found important support through your discussion with your coaches and we are very glad that this group has developed into such a strong cohort which will be able to support each other as you face professional and personal dilemmas while demonstrating courageous leadership. We are so proud of all of you.
Finally, I would like to thank Legacy Heritage Fund and the Waltham Schools for their financial support that has enabled teachers to come to this program. Thank you. We appreciate your commitment to teacher leadership.
Now it's my opportunity to introduce Marcie Brewer, a beloved teacher leader at the Portland Jewish Academy in Oregon who's going to speak on behalf of the Fourth Cohort. Marcie.
[Marcie Brewer is shown before a window partially blocked by white curtains.]
Marcie Brewer: Thank you so much Marya. Good morning to everyone. My name is Marcie Brewer and I'm honored to be asked to speak on behalf of my fellow graduates of the Teacher Leadership Program, Class of 2020.
I like to tell people that I accidentally went back to graduate school. Two years ago when my principal forwarded an email to me about a Teacher Leader Fellowship from Legacy Heritage Foundation, I had just begun to get my head above water. I had just finished leading my school, Portland Jewish Academy through its two year reaccreditation process. I was exhausted but something about my principal's email intrigued me. I had reached a point in my career where I was considering whether to make a move into administration. The email I read was the first time I had encountered the concept of a teacher leader and I was curious about what this could mean for me. Could this be an opportunity to continue to be a leader around important school initiatives plus continue teaching in the classroom? I loved this idea along with the added bonus of attending Brandeis University, a school I have long admired. Despite my exhaustion, I discussed the Brandeis program with my family and I decided to pursue it. I figured it'll be like a conference, we'll begin workshops most of the day, have some bagels and a nosh and then at the end of the day I do some sightseeing.
Well, I kind of got that wrong because I had no understanding of what I was getting myself into. There would be no leaving the learning behind at the end of the day and I wouldn't want to. Frankly, I had no idea that I was about to embark upon the most transformational learning experience of my life with the most amazing group of colleagues and professors I have ever encountered. Now as much as I hate to say it, we've all had bad teachers in our lives and if we've been lucky, we've all had good teachers. What I can tell you right now is those of us in Cohort Four have had the amazing gift of having wonderful, life-changing teachers during our participation in the Teacher Leadership Program. From our very first three-week intensive through our final online class in the middle of a global pandemic, we have been supported, inspired and challenged by these amazing educators. I'd like to say a very special thank you to each of them.
Meg, thank you for holding us in your heart. Thank you for teaching us about norms and fierce conversations and keeping issues of equity at the center of our learning. And thank you for launching us onto our path of teacher leadership.
Aviva, thank you for helping us to learn the importance of seeking feedback on our teaching. Thank you for your support as we came into all of this new learning, and thank you for teaching us to stop, observe and to challenge our judgments.
Megin, thank you for your responsive, dynamic approach as we transitioned into online learning, and thank you for helping us become strong, confident facilitators.
Barbara, thank you for your passion and for helping us to find the power in data. Thank you for helping us see that leadership can be dangerous and that's okay. Thank you for helping us understand that data is more than spreadsheets and numbers.
Julie, thank you for your balance of heart with content. Thank you for normalizing the messiness in any learning endeavor and thank you for helping us develop as action researchers.
Marya, thank you for your finely tuned observations for challenging us to buck the status quo. Thank you for taking the time to connect and support each of us individually as we struggled with the initiatives in our schools and thank you for inspiring us to bring a social justice lens to our teaching and our roles as teacher leaders.
Sharon, thank you for giving us the opportunity to tie everything together through our action research projects. Thank you for pushing us when you knew we were capable of more.
Thank you for Pete Frazier and all of the laughs but most of all, thank you for your care for us during the last several weeks when the world has been a very scary place.
And finally to Margery, thank you Margery for being our invaluable resource on everything, for being our go-to whenever we had a problem, for being our details person, our big picture person, our help-desk person. Thank you for being our tour guide, our activities director, our dorm mom. Thank you for all that you've done to support both Brandeis and Legacy Heritage Foundation.
Another piece of the Teacher Leadership Program puzzle is the one-on-one mentoring each teacher leader receives from their assigned coach. Our coaches are a phenomenal group of individuals who are committed to helping our cohort grow as teacher leaders and as educators. Our coaches are the people who send us a link when they think it might be helpful in our initiative. They're the ones who ask us about our families. They're the ones that help us troubleshoot obstacles we face in our schools. They're the people who push us, challenge us, center us and have guided us step-by-step over this two-year journey. Thank you to all of our coaches but I'd like to say a very special thank you to my coach, Minna Heilpern. Minna, I could not have done this without you. I'm so grateful for your mentorship. While our program may be ending, I know you are always just a Zoom call away if I need you and I know we will be friends for life.
Family, friends, school leaders and colleagues, I know you all know your graduate either personally and/or professionally but here's what you need to know about Cohort Four collectively. This group of individuals are inspired, driven, committed and passionate and each of you are lucky to have them in your schools and your lives. I've been profoundly shaped by my collaboration with each of these individuals. Our conversations, our learning, our struggles, our laughter and our supportive embrace of one another. Not only have we learned how to lead our schools through complex transitions in the face of adaptive challenges, we came together as a family sending love in the face of illness and hardship and celebrating with one another when joy came into our lives, and there has been a lot of joy.
Margery, you may have to fact check me on this but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Cohort Four is in fact the most prolific group to graduate this program. Over the past two years, my colleagues have welcomed into the world, Magnolia Burns, Grady Robert Atwood, Zohara Adira Goldman and most recently Zev and Ruthie Flink-DeShields. Beautiful additions to our already beautiful families, and we are able to ooh and aah over these little cuties and all of our children as we Zoom together every other week, but it hasn't always been easy.
I'd like to send out some special accolades to my cohort for working so hard to balance the responsibilities of teaching full time, completing coursework, leading your initiatives and balancing all of that with parenting or family or personal responsibilities. We, along with all of our families have made sacrifices over the last few years in the pursuit of this work. Thank you to you all, all of our friends and family and colleagues who have allowed us to pursue this learning and accomplish this milestone today. Thank you to my family and friends for your support, and thank you especially to my husband Jeff and to my daughter, Bethie. I am very grateful to you both. I know it hasn't always been easy but I hope we can agree that it's been worth it. I love you both very much.
I've covered our professors, our families, friends and schools. I've spoken about coaches and about our cohort. There is just one last group to speak about, our students. For me, my understanding of my mission as a teacher leader coalesced with a guiding question that was presented to us as a foundation for our learning this year. This question was, how can I facilitate productive conversations with colleagues that promote teacher learning in the service of student learning? Teacher learning in the service of student learning. This idea brought home to me in a very tangible and summative way that all of the work that our cohort has been doing individually and collectively has been in the service of our students and their learning. For me personally, this work has been the facilitation of a professional learning community focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. I've had the honor of working with a stellar group of teachers, specialists, and administrators as our PLC reflected on our curriculum and our practices. We have promoted an inclusion of diverse learners at our school and we have pursued deep learning around anti-racist education. And ultimately for me, this process has been about empowering my students as activists for equity and as advocates for social justice. It was with this idea in mind that I recently asked my eighth-graders to write a spoken word poem at the conclusion of our unit on racism in the pandemic. I was gratified to find more than just a little evidence of student learning around these issues, about the importance of standing up in the face of injustice and being not just a voice for change but an agent of change. I'd like to share one of these spoken word poems with you today. This poem was written and performed by one of my eighth graders, Kai.
[On a different day, Marcie is shown sitting on a couch.]
Marcie: Okay, Kai, you're up.
[Kai is shown before a yellow wall wearing headphones, a large speaker is visible in the background.]
Kai: Okay, alright. I took some inspiration from something else that you might recognize, one line.
[Marie is shown.]
Marcie: Okay, cool.
[Kai is shown.]
Kai: I've never been one for poetry. The words never leapt off the page and allowed me to see beauty where there's nothing nor did they wedge themselves between the fractures of the human heart.
They did not breathe or swell or sway under my cynical gaze to feel like you feel when in the end it signifies nothing, but who am I to talk? I'm no Langston Hughes, no Maya Angelou, but I see something now that I didn't before.
I am a vessel because change does not arrive on its own. It comes into accordance with gentle coaxing because it's as fragile as it is dangerous.
We are the vessels, poets, artists and all the like. We build and destroy when we're up at the mic. Friend, we're the children of devils turned celestial by our hardships, and our catharsis speaks volumes of the blackest of hearts. It gives us a reason to be that vessel. Because when we inspire one, that one inspires two and that two, four cycling over in a chain of hope, sparkling and shining like stardust and when the sums of our actions are unequal to zero, that's when we've done our duty to a culture divided.
You become that vessel and you'll never forget that moment. Your inspiration takes pieces from this fragmented nation and keeps the peace. Your demons keep you afloat in shallow seas of normalcy and even our whispers are sonic booms.
I need you to speak because there's a glitter of hope out there and when you seize it, you blaze like the fire in your soul, I need you to speak because when you spit, the universe spits back because that one verse speaks volumes for millions of silent voices.
And even when all hope seems lost and you have no more reason to rhyme, your rhyme becomes your reason for your lips to form that one last word that sweeps silence off her feet.
We are the thinkers, the players, the poets, the people who ponder the inevitable.
We dance, we sing, we spin and sometimes even get things done. We are the messengers who bring about change in the world, so make your name, write that poem, sing your songs, speak for the masses and
I've never been one for poetry but I hope that this one can speak for you.
[Marcie is shown before the window again.]
Marcie: Yes, that is a hard act to follow but this is what it's all about. It's about our students and their learning, and knowing what I know about my colleagues in Cohort Four about their commitment and their passion, I am confident that Kai's poem is just one example of the amazing student learning that has occurred under the leadership of my fellow graduates and under the stewardship of the Brandeis Teacher Leadership Program. I'm sure my cohort and my professors know me well enough to know that I cannot conclude this presentation without taking a moment to speak to the issues of race and equity currently exploding in our nation. This too is a legacy of being involved in this program.
Over the last couple of years, I have grappled with the challenges of pursuing diversity at a small Jewish day school in Portland, Oregon. I've spoken with my colleagues in our cohort about issues of race and equity facing the Waltham public school district. Over the last couple months of the pandemic, we've seen reports of Asian Americans being attacked in xenophobic fear. We have read of the disproportionately high infection and death rates of African Americans in this country and we have followed stories of the disenfranchisement of Latino and immigrant workers being deliberately exposed to COVID-19 in terrible working conditions. And now over the last couple of days we have seen cities around our country explode into protests and riots over the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and many, many other people of color. It is against this backdrop that I conclude by saying that my experience in the Brandeis Teacher Leadership Program has brought me to the realization that as an educator, I have a profound responsibility to work to dismantle the systemic racism which continues to poison our country. That in the words of Dena Simmons, teaching for an anti-racist future starts with us, the educators. And in the words of Kai, give us a reason to be that vessel because when we inspire one, that one becomes two, four cycling over and a chain of hope sparkling and shining like stardust and when the sum of our actions are unequal to zero, that's when we've done our duty to a culture divided. And with that thought, congratulations Cohort Four, Class of 2020, we did it!
[Sharon Feiman-Nemser is shown before a white wall where a painting hangs.]
Sharon Feiman-Nemser: Marcie, I think we know why your cohort wanted you to speak on their behalf. You brought together a tribute to your instructors and coaches; you brought a student, Kai. Thanks so much for your powerful words with your voice in the world, your generation. This is what gives us hope because as Marcie said, we have all a serious agenda to work on together and to make schools transformative vehicles in that agenda. I think we're all feeling moved and inspired by both what Marcie said and by what Kai brought to us and that's the agenda. And I think that's also why we need teacher leaders to play a role in making the changes that are so needed today.
Now we're turning to the next centerpiece in this, in this program, in our ceremony, an opportunity for coaches to speak individually about their teacher leaders. And before they do, I wanna just add to Marcie's beautiful tribute to the coaches.
My own personal tribute to this amazing group of educators, of professional developers and experienced teacher leaders who work one-on-one with teacher leaders over a two-year period to help them use the conceptual and practical tools that they're introduced to in their courses and figure out how to bring about changes in their schools and make them good places for teacher learning as well as for powerful, ambitious and equitable student learning. That's really the agenda that coaches work on but they do that with grace, with personal attention, with wisdom, with support and challenge, and before coaches give tribute to our students I wanted to say on behalf of the program how lucky we are to have such an amazing team of coaches. I feel really blessed to be your friends and colleagues and so glad that we are all involved together in this endeavor. And now an opportunity for coaches to speak individually to each of our wonderful graduates.
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Andreea Adereth*. Hannah Senesh Community Day School, Brooklyn, New York. Coach: Aviva Scheur. *Legacy Heritage Master's Scholar. A picture shows Andreea seated outside, holding a small white dog in her lap.]
Margery Sokoloff: Andreea Adereth coached by Aviva Scheur.
[Aviva Scheur is shown before an ochre wall where a painting hangs.]
Aviva Scheur: Andreea, what an incredible joy and privilege it is to share this tribute to you. You've grown so much as a teacher leader working to make Hebrew a living language at Hannah Senesh Middle School, both inside and outside the classrooms, as well as increasing students' oral proficiency.
[Andreea Adereth is shown in a living room where many patterned fabrics and wooden decorations can be seen. As Aviva speaks, both women are shown for a few moments at a time.]
Aviva: At the beginning of our program, you needed to navigate your school's administrative structure to determine the focus of your initiative, get buy-in from teachers and key stakeholders so you could bring substantive teacher learning. You embarked on building trust and interest among your colleagues and your department chair and you planned agendas to advance learning goals for teachers. You focused your group on student learning and guided the teachers to incorporate videos of their class and other records of practice in the group work. You've changed the culture of your department from one of surface collegiality and complaints to collaboration, and helped teachers to improve student learning. You bring your full, wonderful, authentic self to your school community just as you do to our Brandeis community. You're welcoming, caring, empathetic to all staff and students. You bring a ray of sunshine with your smile. You care for each of your students; you guide them with knowledge, love and so much creativity. Even the pandemic did not hold you back from having your students write and act in their own Hebrew play. Andreea, you have so much to be proud of. Moving forward, continue to use your deep self awareness to guide you in following through on your goals for teacher and student learning. When you feel unsure or discouraged, remember that you've been there before and that feeling is just an initial step in all you can accomplish as a teacher leader. And please continue to bring joy, caring and love to all of those you touch. I look forward to our continued friendship.
[Andreea is shown.]
Andreea Adereth: Thank you so much, Aviva. This program has meant everything to me. It's changed my life and I can't thank Aviva enough for her support and everybody like Marcie said, thank you so much.
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Carl Atwood*. Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, Rockville, Maryland. Coach: Aviva Scheur. *Legacy Heritage Master's Scholar. A picture shows Carl Atwood smiling brightly.]
Margery: Carl Atwood coached by Aviva Scheur.
[Aviva is shown.]
Aviva: Carl, what an honor and a pleasure it has been for me to be your coach and teacher.
[Carl Atwood is shown before a white wall. As Aviva speaks, both are shown in succession for a few moments at a time.]
Aviva: You came to our program with the clear sense of your adaptive challenge, improving academic honesty in the Charles E. Smith School, beginning with your high school. In your own unobtrusive way you got buy-in and enthusiasm from many key players in your school. You assembled a fabulous team to work with you. You crafted and led focused agendas which built your team and moved your initiative forward step-by-step. You shared national and data from your own school on academic honesty. You've worked closely with administrators and tapped a wide variety of resources. I remember being at a meeting with you with one administrator who initially felt this initiative would not be something that would need to involve her at all and by the end of the conversation she was planning several key meetings with students on this initiative. You got students involved in focus groups. You hosted a student meme competition to spread the word, you worked with department chairs and then lead a full faculty program. When we were hit with the pandemic and the need for remote learning, you quickly work to develop guidelines for academic honesty for this new kind of learning and shared them with families. You've been thinking more broadly about ways to inform and involve parents strategically in their children's education. You're so humble about yourself and what you've learned and accomplished. I'm gratified that you've heard from so many at your school, not only about your work on your initiative but also the ways you have emerged so strongly as a teacher leader.
Oh, and you did all this while you and Haley gave birth to Grady in the fall as a baby brother to Wes. I've loved being your coach, Carl. You kept me laughing with your great sense of humor and wonderful perspective, so proud of you. I know you'll have many opportunities ahead of you to impact many teachers and students as a teacher leader and I look forward to us staying in touch.
[Carl is shown.]
Carl Atwood: Thank you, Aviva. It's been quite a journey, quite a transformative couple of years in all ways of my life, and thank you for your guidance and help along the way.
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Elana Bailes*. Perelman Jewish Day School, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Coach: Cindy Shulak-Rome. *Legacy Heritage Master's Scholar. A headshot of Elana is shown.]
Margery: Elana Bailes coached by Cindy Shulak-Rome.
[Cindy Shulak-Rome is shown before a white wall and wooden decorations and furniture.]
Cindy Shulak-Rome: Elana, in addition to teaching third grade, you had already been serving as writing coordinator at Perelman prior to coming to this program.
[Elana Bailes is shown before a white wall. As Cindy speaks, both are shown in succession for a few moments at a time.]
Cindy: As writing coordinator, you had a long standing lunch-and-learn program where you met regularly with teachers and spoonfed them, giving them new ideas or a recipe for light writing lessons that they could take back to their classrooms. Now for some people it can be more challenging to change an already established practice than it is to start new. In our first meeting I was quite impressed by the way you wholeheartedly embraced the idea of transforming your lunch-and-learn to a completely new structure that was more aligned with your evolving understanding of teacher leadership. You established an inquiry group where for the past two years you have modeled for teachers how to work collaboratively to strengthen writing instruction. You have skillfully guided them in learning to look closely at student work and to openly address questions about practice, all in the service of strengthening teaching and student learning.
I have continued to be impressed each step of the way as we have worked together. You are thoughtful, open, receptive to new ideas, keenly intelligent and so very humble. You have the unique capacity to embrace the strategic aspect of leadership work, thinking that you're really not doing anything, while standing on the balcony taking in the big picture of what is needed and simultaneously immersing yourself in the nuts and bolts of teaching and leading with deep insight. It has truly been my honor and delight to work with you. I know that you are already planning next steps that will further strengthen your school. It's clear to me that you are a lifelong learner and I know this will serve you well as you move forward and I hope that I will get glimpses and communications about that in the years to come. Mazal tov to you on this simcha.
[Elana is shown.]
Elana Bailes: Thank you so much Cindy. I've learned more from you in the last two years than I can ever say.
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Marcie Brewer*. Portland Jewish Academy, Portland, Oregon. Coach: Minna Heilpern. *Legacy Heritage Master's Scholar. A picture shows Carl Atwood smiling brightly.]
Margery: Marcie Brewer coached by Minna Heilpern.
[Minna Heilpern is shown before blue walls.]
Minna Heilpern: It is with bursting pride and joy that I congratulate Marcie Brewer, middle school Humanities and Drama teacher extraordinaire at the Portland Jewish Academy in Portland, Oregon on your graduation today.
[Marcie is shown. Minna is shown.]
Minna: Marcie, working with you has been an inspirational and joyful experience because besides being such a phenomenal—
[Minna's mouth moves, but nothing can be heard.]
Marcie: Minna, I think you're muted.
Minna: I'll start again. Sorry, thank you Marcie, we're a team.
[Marcie is shown. As Minna speaks, both are shown in succession for a few moments at a time.]
Minna: It is with bursting pride and joy that I congratulate you, Marcie Brewer, middle school Humanities and Drama teacher extraordinaire at the Portland Jewish Academy in Portland, Oregon on your graduation today. Marcie, working with you has been an inspirational and joyful experience because besides being such a phenomenal human being who I've loved getting to know, you are a dedicated, knowledgeable, skillful, creative and self-aware educator. Your success as a teacher leader is due to the manner in which you work with the highest level of integrity, thoughtfulness and respect. These qualities infuse all that you do. Through your initiative on pursuing diversity, equity and inclusion you have inspired your colleagues and students to look more deeply at themselves, to examine the preconceptions that they have about others and to devote themselves to being anti-racist advocates. Your work embodies the Hebrew expression, "Receive everyone with a pleasant countenance." These are values that you, your colleagues, your students are embracing as evidenced so eloquently by your student Kai and the poem he wrote. Your work is needed now more than ever and we are so thrilled that you're at the forefront of this at your school.
In addition to the amazing success of your initiative, I am always wowed by your writing which impressively expresses your thinking. I hope that you will share this thinking and in your experiences more broadly through the world of education because we all have so much to learn from you. It has been my profound honor and joy to have been your coach. I look forward to remaining in touch with you as you move forward in the next steps in your journey. May you continue to go from strength to strength. Mazal tov.
[Marcie is shown.]
Marcie: Thank you.
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Matthew Burns. Waltham High School, Waltham, Massachusetts. Coach: Ned Rossiter. A headshot of Matthew is shown.]
Margery: Matthew Burns coached by Ned Rossiter.
[Ned Rossiter is shown before a yellow wall.]
Ned Rossiter: It is my privilege to present this tribute to Matt Burns, a highly respected Science and Engineering teacher at Waltham High School.
[Matthew Burns is shown outside before a yellow shed and a fence. As Ned speaks, both are shown for a few moments at a time.]
Ned: Matt is also a graduate of the school. Matt, when you came to Brandeis for your master's degree, there was evidence of a need for a stronger sense of community in your school. In particular, the growing enrollment of students who are English language learners presented challenges for the faculty which you did not let any of the obstacles you faced daunt you in the pursuit of your adaptive initiative which was to develop a program of advisories, shorter periods in the schedule not devoted to academic instruction where students could be assisted in finding supportive, trusting relationships that would draw them closer to each other and to the school, and ultimately enhance their learning. Developing support for advisories involved reaching out to administration and colleagues and also to the older students in your mentoring program. You patiently went to endless small meetings and gatherings. You spoke at faculty meetings, you had one-on-one conversations in the halls, at lunch and in prep time. You established a strong working relationship with your principal. You skillfully employed technology. You were attentive to the research and you persisted. Always cheerful, always thoughtful and analytical about your goals, always persuasive, you succeeded. My sense and my hope is that when things return to normal at Waltham High School, there will be a powerful new advisory program dedicated to creating a new school community, and the school will be grateful to you for helping to make it happen. And I am grateful for having had the opportunity to work with you. Best wishes to you.
[Matthew is shown.]
Matthew Burns: Thanks Ned, I'm so lucky to have been paired with you. I tell my wife on almost a daily basis that this program is awesome but having Ned with me has been really special. I cherish your guidance and friendship, thank you.
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Michelle Chan*. The Emery/Weiner School, Houston, Texas. Coach: Shira Loewenstein. *Legacy Heritage Master's Scholar. A headshot of Michelle is shown.]
Margery: Michelle Chan coached by Shira Loewenstein.
[Shira Loewenstein is shown before a gray wall with Hebrew words written in different colors.]
Shira Loewenstein: Hi Michelle, I wanna wish you sincere congratulations today.
[Michelle Chan is shown before an image of a blossoming tree before the Shapiro Campus Center. As Shira speaks, both are shown for a few moments at a time.]
Shira Loewenstein: I know how much you were looking forward to going to Brandeis and walking across the stage and you handled this hurdle with the grace and poise that you bring to everything you do. When you and I spoke the first time two years ago, you described a tall task that you had before you. You were gonna take two distinct Math departments at Emery/Weiner and bring them together into one cohesive group. Each group had its dynamics, politics, personalities and here you were being told to unite them into a team. Your school could not have picked a better person to take this on. You lead with smart intuition. Your calm, strong demeanor and total humility makes it hard for anyone to say no. The sailing hasn't always been smooth and you questioned yourself and your task, but looking back on the journey, you always knew what your team needed and what needed to happen to get there.
Michelle, you're a true leader and a visionary and I know that without a doubt you will transform the way that hundreds of students learn math with your keen awareness of what your students need and mathematics. I can't wait to read about your work in a journal someday but make sure to call me first so I can read your manuscript.
[Michelle is shown.]
Michelle Chan: Thank you so much, Shira. It's been a roller coaster of a past two years and it's been wonderful having you on the ride with me and that person that I could call and email and speak to at any moment to get some advice and some help. So thank you so much.
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Milka Eliav*. Hebrew Day School of Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Coach: Shira Horowitz. *Legacy Heritage Master's Scholar. A headshot of Milka is shown.]
Margery: Milka Eliav coached by Shira Horowitz.
[Shira Horowitz is shown before a white wall.]
Shira Horowitz: It has truly been my honor and pleasure to coach Milka Eliav this year.
[Milka is shown before a teal wall, smiling. As Shira Horowitz speaks, both are shown in succession for a few moments at a time.]
Shira Horowitz: Milka is a Hebrew teacher at the Hebrew day school of Ann Arbor in Michigan where she teaches kindergartners and third and fourth graders. She began this program last year with a goal of documenting and streamlining the school's Hebrew curriculum, creating a roadmap as she likes to call it. As she looked for opportunities to facilitate meetings with her colleagues, Milka realized that while the Hebrew teachers and Judiac teachers in her school often met together, they were not yet fully working as a team. During this year, she expanded her initiative into taking over the leadership of the Hebrew and Judaic studies team. Although these teachers had worked side-by-side for years, Milka encouraged them to build a true collegial team as they shared their planning and found points of integration in their curricula to best support their students' learning.
This work has not been easy and Milka, I know you've had many moments of doubt in your own abilities. I hope today, Milka, that you can feel with total confidence that you are a true teacher leader. You may not yet have reached perfection, few of us ever do, but you have shown us all what can be accomplished when you open yourself up with honesty and integrity and work for what you believe in. Milka, I have been so inspired by your perseverance and passion as a teacher, a Jewish educator and a leader. I very much hope that this will not be the end of our personal and professional connections but the beginning of a new chapter. Mazal tov.
Milka Eliav: Todah Shira. (Hebrew for Thank you, Shira)
[Milka holds up a piece of paper that reads: Best. Coach. Ever! Instead of periods, hearts punctuate after the first two words.]
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Summer Gottlieb*. Ida Crown Jewish Academy, Skokie, Illinois. Coach: Shira Loewenstein. *Legacy Heritage Master's Scholar. A headshot of Summer is shown.]
Margery: Summer Gottlieb coached by Shira Loewenstein.
[Shira Loewenstein is shown.]
Shira Loewenstein: Chavee, Summer, whatever we're calling you today, mazal tov.
[Summer is shown before a white wall, smiling. As Shira Loewenstein speaks, both are shown in succession for a few moments.]
Shira Loewenstein: I knew from the first moment we spoke that you were smart and opinionated, that you had strong beliefs about education and you knew chemistry like the back of your hand. You started off last year with about 25 initiatives in mind and we finally narrowed it down to one. You gracefully led a PLC of teachers who were running co-curricular activities through a year of deep discussion and intention. At the beginning of this year when you were transitioned to the head of the Science department, you brought the same skills and thoughtfulness to your leadership there, transforming your crew of science teachers into a team of thoughtful educators. I always knew that you were a valuable asset to Ida Crown but I don't think I realized how much of an institution you were and are until I visited you in school. When you and I met with your principal, your team members, your head of school, everyone stressed how much a part of the fabric you really were of Ida Crown. Your school is so lucky to have you and they know it. You've proven through your dedication to your students, your colleagues and the many years of your life that you've poured into Ida Crown just how much value you bring. Mazel tov on this graduation. I know you will continue to lead your department and I'm sure you will continue growing and learning for many years to come.
[Summer is shown.]
Summer Gottlieb: Thank you so much, it's been transformative. I appreciate all the guidance and support from you, Shira and from all of my cohort and my professors, thank you.
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Jessie Heller*. Briskin Elementary School, Hollywood, California. Coach: Barbara Laites Collins. *Legacy Heritage Master's Scholar. A headshot of Jessie is shown.]
Margery: Jessie Heller coached by Barbara Laites Collins.
[Barbara Laites Collins is shown before a white wall and bookshelf.]
Barbara Laites Collins: It is truly a pleasure and an honor to share this tribute for Jessie Heller, our teacher leader from the Briskin Elementary School, Temple Israel of Hollywood, where with joy and passion she teaches her kindergarten students.
[Jessie is shown before a white wall. As Barbara speaks, both are shown in succession for a few moments.]
Barbara: Jessie, they have loved every moment with you both when they were in their brick and mortar classroom and now online during this pandemic. You didn't skip a beat. Your students, their families and your colleagues all understand they're working with a truly inspirational and devoted educator who continually strives to be her best self. Jessie, your administrators shared that your leadership work at your school has been transformative. They stated you were the right person for the right job and this has been absolutely true. You led the school-wide initiative to implement and integrate research that has emanated from the Yale University Center for Emotional Intelligence, exemplifying a new program to engage and emotionally support the individualized learning of all children. You successfully planned and facilitated teacher learning opportunities throughout the past two years, and these were carefully aligned with your school's improvement plans and principles for effective professional development all in the service of each and every student.
You are a keen and skillful listener with continual energy, you set your own goals, continually sought feedback from students and colleagues. You clearly see yourself as a change agent working from within, as do your colleagues. Your teacher leadership assignments and presentations were all thoroughly researched, methodically planned and revised and completed almost before the assignments were given. You have grown in skill and confidence over the past two years and this spring were invited to present with your school's administrative team at a national conference on emotional intelligence at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
We will be watching with anticipation where your future takes you. Jessie, you have so many choices and no matter which path you take, we know your students will be at the very heart of it, and yes, Jessie, we will stay connected. I have so loved being your coach.
Jessie Heller: Thank you so much, Barbara. I'm so grateful for you and all of the support and guidance, and I know this will be a lifelong friendship that we have here, so thank you so much.
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Tamar Jeniski. Weston Middle & High School, Weston, Massachusetts. Coach: Jody Klein. A headshot of Tamar is shown.]
Margery: Tamar Jeniski coached by Jody Klein.
[Jody Klein is shown before a blue wall.]
Barbara: You're muted.
Jody Klein: Thank you, I have that in my head.
[Tamar Jeniski is shown before a gray wall below a small, white-trimmed window. As Jody speaks, both are shown in succession for a few moments.]
Jody: Congratulations to Tamar Jeniski, a proud middle and high school English language education teacher in Weston, Massachusetts who I have had the privilege of coaching these past two years. Like an athlete in training, Tamar, you have put in countless hours practicing skills, collaborating with teammates, flexing your muscles and applying what you learn. Your leadership stance has evolved, especially in the area of initiating difficult conversations. You have strengthened your skills and have demonstrated confidence moving from deliberation to taking action. Tamar, you often reference this quote by education professor Pat McGuire, "sometimes you have to speak up for the people not in the room. You have to speak for the kids." This quote is reflective of your unwavering commitment and advocacy for English learners and their families. Never one to stay in your lane, you have brought educators and guidance counselors together to form a professional learning community with a mission to educate and respond to the academic and social and emotional needs of English learners. In this forum, you have facilitated adult learning and created space for colleagues to raise concerns and get strategies to improve student learning and support mental health. You lead by character and by example and I sincerely wish you much success as you continue to put your skills to work to develop a culture that supports the needs of English learners and their families.
Tamar Jeniski: Jody, I truly enjoyed working with you and learning from you. You lead with such a gentle, calm, and open-minded manner. Thank you for your guidance, support, advice, and most of all the consistent encouragement over the past two years.
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Morgan King. John W. McDevitt Middle School, Waltham, Massachusetts. Coach: Barbara Laites Collins. A headshot of Morgan is shown.]
Margery: Morgan King coached by Barbara Laites Collins.
[Barbara is shown.]
Barbara: What an honor and pleasure it is to share this tribute to Morgan King, our seventh grade Science teacher at the McDevitt Middle School in Waltham, Massachusetts.
[Morgan King is shown before a white wall. As Barbara speaks, both are shown in succession for a few moments.]
Barbara: Morgan, what has inspired me so much as your coach has been watching you develop and grow over the past two years while always sharing and bringing your full, authentic self to everything you do: your teaching, your passion for science and your leadership work. With purposeful pride and determination and with method and creativity, you have built a culture of trust and collaboration to successfully establish a professional learning community among your science colleagues, truly in the service of teacher and student learning, a first-time initiative for your group. You facilitated productive conversations and promoted student learning, anchored in a shared knowledge of good teaching in your commitment to provide for equitable learning and ambitious teaching for all students. With a critical understanding of the importance of communication and collaboration, you created an extensive understandable and usable tracking system of student and teacher data to be aligned with equity, a key school and district-wide challenge and initiative. Your presentations for teacher learning and facilitation of conversations focused successfully on equitable access to all curriculum and the tracking of equitable learning opportunities most especially needed during these difficult times. You are able to take your own extensive knowledge of data, data use and technology, looking at the whole student and make it understandable and usable for all your colleagues who in turn were proud of their knowledge and accomplishments. For some of your colleagues, this was a first time effort and foray into this work. Repeatedly, I heard colleagues say, I just couldn't have done this without her. That would be you, Morgan, with your reputation as a teacher leader firmly established you have gone on to facilitate learning opportunities at the school-wide and district-wide level which have continued through the pandemic. And this summer, you have been invited to be a guest lecture at Boston College. Morgan, the world awaits you. We all look eagerly to your future. We know your passion for making science accessible to all your students will continue to be an integral part of your leadership work which has inspired so much change and I know we will stay connected. I have loved being your coach.
[Morgan is shown.]
Morgan King: Thank you so much, Barbara. You've been an endlessly positive lifeline through this experience and I just wouldn't be here without you, so I really appreciate everything you've done. Thank you so much.
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Nehama Libman*. SAR Academy, Riverdale, New York. Coach: Marion Gribetz. *Legacy Heritage Master's Scholar. A headshot of Nehama is shown.]
Margery: Nehama Libman coached by Marion Gribetz.
[Marion Gribetz is shown before a yellow wall where a poster hangs.]
Marion Gribetz: Nehama, grace, inquisitiveness, care, purpose.
[Nehama Libman is shown before a white wall. As Marion speaks, both are shown in succession for a few moments.]
Marion: These are some of the attributes that come to mind when I think about you. Nehama's initiative at the SAR Academy in Riverdale, New York, a Jewish day school where Jewish studies is taught in the educational philosophy known as עברית בעברית, Hebrew in Hebrew, more about that in a moment, was focused on fostering more independence in the second grade students. Imagine second graders, seven and eight-year olds being given instructions and materials all in a foreign language, Hebrew, and during a full half of their school day, every day. And now imagine a teacher so devoted to the intellectual, spiritual, social and emotional growth of each of these students in the second grade that she insisted on tackling this challenge. This is Nehama.
Nehama, you lead your PLC with such determination and professionalism, you continually reflect, refine and question in order to investigate this challenge and to make the work that you and the PLC do, be a true lever for change in the teaching and learning of all the students. You embody what it means to be a reflective practitioner and a teacher leader. You also embody teaching as a scholarly profession. You focus the initiative on students' independence but in truth all of your work was guided by the concepts of creating independence and autonomy for the members of the PLC and yourself as well. May you go from strength to strength, מחיל אל חיל, and take with you the lessons you have learned during these past two years as well as the resilience you have fostered in yourself and your students during these challenging past three months. Nehama, it's been a pleasure to work with you and I know that we will continue to communicate and be in touch and I just wish you the whole world in front of you to make change in, mazal tov.
Nehama Libman: Thank you, Marion, and really none of this would have been possible without Marion knowing exactly when to push me and support me and guide me all the way through so I am so, so, so grateful for that, thank you.
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Ashley Peper. ICEF Inglewood Elementary Charter School, Inglewood, California. Coach: Barbara Laites Collins. A headshot of Ashley is shown.]
Margery: Ashley Peper coached by Barbara Laites Collins.
[Barbara is shown.]
Barbara: The Inner City Education Foundation gained the highest standard of teacher performance when they hired Ashley Peper to be a third grade teacher at the Inglewood Charter Elementary School located in one of the most disadvantaged areas of inner city Los Angeles.
[Ashley Peper is shown in a white room. She wipes tears from her eyes. As Barbara speaks, both are shown in succession for a few moments.]
Barbara: Against all odds, and we are truly seeing many of those odds daily in the news, Ashley, you have contributed to the emerging transformation in your school, building a culture of trust and collaboration with teacher learning anchored in a shared understanding of good teaching and productive conversations that promote teacher learning and student learning. Through your evolving leadership initiative you have flexibly and continually worked toward equitable learning and ambitious teaching of all students. Through your facilitation of productive conversations with your colleagues as well as the modeling of your teaching practices, you have promoted the essential understanding that ongoing assessment needs to be deeply integrated with collaborative planning and a shared accountability that provides for equitable access to all curriculum and promotes continuous improvement for all students. With care and concern, you led your grade level professional learning community, keeping an eye on aligning your work with your network's goals. As you grew in your leadership skills and confidence, you have gone on to serve on school-wide and network-wide committees. "I will do what it takes, they're all my students," you have continually said over the past two years.
When the pandemic first necessitated school closings, you took 21 shopping bags into your classroom and filled them with paper, pencils, pens and workbooks — everything that you knew your students needed and possibly didn't have in their homes. You then personally delivered them to all 21 homes where your students live. You have had close to 100% online attendance over the past two months, quite an accomplishment, quite an inspiration.
Ashley, we recognize you have many choices in your future and much work that you see needing to be done, and we know you will always keep your students at the very heart of your choices. I look forward to our continuing collaboration. I have loved being your coach.
[Ashley is shown. She wipes her tears with a napkin.]
Ashley Peper: Clearly, you brought the waterworks but I knew that was gonna happen. I try not to but Barbara, I could not do this without you. There were the ups and downs. Every time that I thought I was making no progress, you made me feel like a superstar and that's what kept me going. You are the number one mentor in my life and I can't thank you enough.
[A dark blue slide reads: Brandeis University, Class of 2020, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Hannah Rothschild*. Charles E. Smith Day School, Rockville, Maryland. Coach: Aviva Scheur. *Legacy Heritage Master's Scholar. A headshot of Hannah is shown.]
Margery: Hannah Rothschild coached by Aviva Scheur.
[Aviva is shown.]
Aviva: It's been such a pleasure to work with you, Hannah.
[Hannah Rothschild is shown before a large bookshelf. As Aviva speaks, both are shown for a few moments in succession.]
Aviva: Both as a student in my class and coaching you in your initiative of improving the Hebrew instruction at Charles E. Smith Middle and High school so students would engage more deeply. You've shown how committed you are to your work, how eager you are to learn and to grow in your practice. You're committed to your students as learners and as individuals. You're caring, you're compassionate and you're responsive to different student needs. You have a wealth of knowledge and understanding about the content you teach and how to teach that content to the students in an effective and engaging manner. You're eager to work with the teachers in the Hebrew department which you lead to help new and veteran teachers examine and improve their teaching skills so their students can make substantive, measurable growth in their Hebrew skills and embrace Hebrew as a serious academic subject. You've taken on the challenge of building a collaborative department that works together and examines teaching and learning. The meetings you've established with the middle school teachers in your school have begun to create a new culture of collaboration, co-planning and looking at student achievement. You've begun to meet with high school teachers to help them set and work on goals for improvement.
It's been wonderful to watch you grow in your role and gain some well-deserved confidence in your leadership. You're helping teachers to craft their lessons, to meet the desired outcomes and to examine their practice. You're navigating difficult conversations to move forward and building your department's culture and focus on student learning. I admire your tenacity and your compassion. Hannah, I wish you continued growth in your practice, confidence in implementing your leadership skills, good health and much joy. I look forward to staying in touch.
[Hannah is shown.]
Hannah: Thank you so much. Without you I couldn't have done it.
[A blue-tinted slide shows the Shapiro Science Center. White text reads:
Teacher Leadership Program Faculty:
Meg Anderson
Megin Charner-Laird
Barbara Laites Collins
Sharon Feiman-Nemser
Julie Horwitz
Aja Jackson
Jody Klein
Marya Levenson
Nili Pearlmutter
Aviva Scheur
Margery Sokoloff
Sharon: Wow, I think these tributes to our amazing students not only highlight the kinds of contributions that our teacher leaders are making to their schools and how lucky those schools are to have them, the important changes that they're making, but also you now see what an amazing team of coaches are associated with this program and what an incredible gift the program gives to each teacher leader by matching them with a coach who can provide, as you heard, friendship and guidance, support and challenge. The coaches walk the talk.
I also want to acknowledge the incredible contributions of the faculty of the program, some of whom are also part of the coaching team as well — and these are the people who teach courses online and in person when the circumstances allow for that — providing teacher leaders with a set of practical and intellectual tools to take on both a new identity as a teacher leader and to work with colleagues in making powerful changes in the quality of teaching and learning.
You have a list in front of you and I want to really mention them by name. I feel personally so fortunate to have this team of colleagues. We ourselves are a professional learning community, building a collaborative culture in the program and it's been a gift and a pleasure to work with all of you. Meg Anderson, Megin Charner-Laird, Barbara Laites Collins, Julie Horwitz, Aja Jackson, Jody Klein, Marya Levenson, Nili Pearlmutter, Aviva Scheur and Margery Sokoloff.
[Sharon is shown.]
Sharon: I'm so happy that we are colleagues and friends and these are the people who provide the intellectual foundation for this amazing teacher leader program.
[Margery is shown before a white wall and white bookshelf.]
Margery: Hello, I'm Margery Sokoloff, the assistant director of the Teacher Leadership Program. And as we enter the final stages of this ceremony, I wanna first give my heartfelt congratulations to all the graduates who worked so hard to get to this day. I wanna thank their families. I wanna thank the dedicated coaches and faculty who helped them to grow. And I also wanna give a shout out at this point to our amazing tech team, Matthew Burton and Dan Jennings, who are working behind the scenes right this minute and have been for weeks to make this ceremony possible.
[Margery holds up both hands and shakes them in silent applause.]
Margery: And while we're honoring many special teachers and their accomplishments today, I wanted to take a few minutes of your attention to recognize two educators without whom this program quite literally, literally would not exist.
[A blue-tinted slide shows the Shaprio Science Center. White text reads:
Brandeis Teacher Leadership Program Co-founders & Co-Directors.
Dr. Marya Levenson, Dr. Sharon Feiman-Nemser.
Above their names, a headshot of each woman is shown.]
Margery: These two women are the co-founders and co-directors of the Brandeis Teacher Leadership Program, Professor Marya Levenson and professor Sharon Feiman-Nemser, and they are both retiring this year. In fact, presiding over this ceremony may very well be the last official duty they will discharge at Brandeis without the word emeritus attached to their names. And just as all of you were looking forward to donning your caps and gowns to receive your diplomas today, Professors Levenson and Feinman-Nemser were looking forward to their own milestone, wearing their regalia and taking places of honor on the commencement stage in seats reserved specially for retiring professors. I want to give this short speech today to let them know how much we appreciate and admire them even without those conventional trappings.
Professor Levenson assumed the titles, Professor of the Practice and Education and the Harry S. Levitan Director of Education when she arrived at Brandeis in 2001. In 2008 she was honored to receive the Louis Dembitz Brandeis prize for excellence in teaching. During her nearly 20-year career at Brandeis, Professor Levenson helped to create the Brandeis education studies major and teacher leadership programs. She chaired the Social Science division. She served on the Faculty Senate and she strengthened the Brandeis Waltham School partnership. Professor Levenson is the author of the book, "Pathways To Teacher Leadership: Emerging Models, Changing Roles" and she currently serves on the Harvard Education Press, Editorial Advisory Board. Professor Levenson is herself a graduate of Brandeis from the Class of 1964. She began her career as an educator in 1971 as a ninth grade History teacher at the William Barton Rogers Junior High School in Boston public schools. She was actively involved in the Boston Teachers Union. She served as principal of Newton North High School and she was superintendent of the North Colonie School District in New York State. Professor Levenson earned her EDD in Administration and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she became the assistant director of the principal's center.
Professor Feiman-Nemser is the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Professor of Jewish Education. She holds joint appointments in the near Eastern and Judaic Studies department and the education program. Since coming to Brandeis in 2001, she founded the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies and Jewish Education which she directed until 2015. She developed the Delet Program, Day School Leadership Through Teaching, which evolved into the Master of Arts in Teaching Program, and with Professor Levenson, she created this Brandeis Teacher Leadership Program. Professor Feiman-Nemser has researched and written extensively on teacher education, learning to teach, and Jewish education. A former high school English teacher, she's especially interested in the necessary but problematic role of experience in learning to teach. Professor Feiman-Nemser has published widely in the field of teacher mentoring and new teacher induction, and a collection of her writings, "Teachers As Learners," was published by Harvard Education Press in 2012. In 2018 she received a presidential citation from the American Educational Research Association for her groundbreaking scholarship. Before coming to Brandeis, Professor Feiman-Nemser served on the faculties of the University of Chicago and Michigan State University where she directed innovative teacher education programs.
And now as I transition into my more personal reflections on Professor Levenson and Professor Feiman-Nemser, I will take the liberty of referring to them by their first names. I have worked with Marya Levenson and Sharon Feiman-Nemser for nearly six years and during this time I have come to recognize in them the perfect team. Where Marya is warm, Sharon is gracious. Where Marya is unflappable, Sharon is demanding, both of herself and her students. Marya focuses on what is possible. She knows how to get the attention of people in charge. Sharon sees the world in a grain of sand. When studying or working with her, you know you are going to dig deep and in those depths discover the stars. Marya is the captain of a ship, her spyglass trained on the horizon. Sharon is a poet, sensitive to the extraordinary within the ordinary. Marya inspires teachers to speak and to act. Sharon arms them with language and skills so they speak and act effectively. Marya is universally loved and revered by those who have come into contact with her and whose lives she has enriched. Sharon is an internationally renowned expert invited to speak and teach around the world, and beloved even by those she has never met. At heart, Marya will always be an ideal superintendent; Sharon, the consummate teacher educator.
I say again, Marya and Sharon are the perfect team — not because they always see eye to eye but precisely because they do not. Is it challenging to work with two smart and powerful and opinionated women who are both used to being in charge? You bet, but as anyone who knows them understands. While Marya and Sharon may differ in their temperaments and approaches, fundamentally they share the same values and goals. Both are firmly committed to social justice and to the idea that every learner, adult or child, deserves a fair, equitable and high quality education. And so in designing the Teacher Leadership Program together, Marya and Sharon envisioned two intertwining strands reflecting their own complementary strengths — an institutional leadership strand focused on school culture and school change and an instructional leadership strand focused on student and educator teaching and learning.
As we prepare to welcome our sixth cohort of teacher leaders to the program this summer, we can see that their students have benefited from both of their brands of wisdom. And so in closing, I want to read a few quotes from their former students in the Teacher Leadership Program because in my experience, when it comes to teachers, students say it best.
So for Marya from Genevra Valvo: "In her initial address to our cohort in the summer of 2016, Marya spoke about how K to 12 education has historically been fundamentally important and also systematically undermined in our society, due at least in part to its majority female workforce. Her words reinforced how essential it is to see our work in a larger sociopolitical context and how teaching is at its core a political act. In some education programs, logistical and practical details overshadow the greater vision of how education can contribute to a better future. I appreciate how Marya was able to name this dissonance from the get go and set the tone for more meaningful and reflective growth."
For Marya from Sherry Nichols: "There are so many qualities to admire about Marya. She is a strong, energetic person who leads by example and is not afraid to take risks or speak her mind. Marya is an excellent listener and an amazing storyteller. When she describes her experiences in life, not only does she make you think about the big ideas, Marya makes you feel like you were right there with her. I am a better person after spending time with Marya. She has left a lasting impression on my life and although she may not know it, I think about her often and feel so thankful that I was afforded the opportunity to have her as a teacher and a mentor."
And now for Sharon. Sharon from Chavah Goldman: "It has been such an educative experience working with Sharon. She continually guides my thinking in new directions and has been incredibly helpful in the process of unpacking my problems of practice and thoughts about teaching and coaching. I've learned from Sharon, among many other things, the value of data and transparency and the importance of getting to the heart of the problem even if digging deeper takes us out of our comfort zone."
And finally for Sharon from Missy Friedman: "Sharon, from you I honed and sharpened my ability to observe, to really observe, to state what I see without judgment or evaluation. I quote you often in my own practice and in my head when these concepts are violated. From you I learned the skills needed to have the difficult conversations we often have to have in our profession with a mentee, a colleague, a parent or an administrator. From you I learned the importance of choosing and using the right protocol at a meeting or when analyzing student work. From you I learned the importance of asking the right questions, and from you I learned about balancing support and challenge when working with colleagues to improve teaching and learning."
Marya and Sharon, I think I speak for all the students and staff of the Teacher Leadership Program when I say thank you for teaching us and modeling for us how to lead. We wish you all the best in your so-called retirement.
Marya: Thank you.
Sharon: Wow.
[Margery is shown.]
Margery: And now in keeping with my description, Sharon is going to share with the graduates an original poem.
[Sharon is shown.]
Sharon: Okay, but before I do that, before I turn to the poem, which it's not in the same category as Kai's poem, but first I wanna say to my dear friend and colleague, Marya, it's been a wonderful ride together
[Marya is shown, nodding in agreement.]
Sharon: and as you all know, we're not so retiring in our personalities and we're also not leaving the Teacher Leader Program behind.
[Sharon is shown.]
Sharon: And I also want to say on behalf of all of us, Marcie spoke about Margery's contributions to the program, but I want to speak briefly about Dr. Margery Sokoloff who is the assistant director of the program, who comes with a Ph.D. from Yale in English literature, who is an experienced educator herself as an English teacher, who does so much to make this program happen, who combines serious attention to detail, caring for individuals, a real zest for the ideas in the program and for making the program work together. Today's program is a reflection of the variety of talents that Margery brings to her work in the program and we all depend on her in so many ways, and I personally have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy, our almost daily phone conversations about things related to this program. We are truly blessed in the faculty and coaches and administrators that work on this program together. And I in my own career feel so grateful to have colleagues who are also friends, to work with people that I truly love and I enjoy learning with and from.
[Sharon raises her hands and shakes them in silent applause.]
Sharon: Let's all with our hands show Margery just a little bit of how much she has done for each of us individually and how much her spirit is also part of both the content and the process of this program and so much its culture of friendship and kindness and attention. You help us put students at the center, Margery, and that's a fundamental tenet of our program and what we also believe deeply about education.
[As she reads, Sharon's poem is shown on blue-tinted slides.]
Sharon: And now my poem, which I send to all these wonderful graduates whom I had the pleasure of teaching twice and seeing grow from Summer 2 to until the final semester.
A poem for Cohort Four on the Occasion of their Graduation.
This graduation gives me an excuse
To write you a poem in the manner of Seuss.
To acknowledge the hard work that you have all done
And believe me, I know that it wasn't all fun.
But you soldiered through summer, fall, winter and spring
So we could all hear graduation bells ring.
And I meant what I said and I said what I meant.
Cohort Four is graduating 100%.
From balcony to dance floor and back up again,
You scanned the school landscape for enemy and friend.
You identified challenges, adaptive and technical.
Came up with solutions both thoughtful and practical.
You altered the norm so that teachers would dare
To make practice public for others to share.
You saw data, planned meetings, analyze student work
While your classroom teaching you never did shirk.
And to top it all off, you conducted a study
Which you openly shared with your research buddy.
You wondered aloud and you tried not to judge
With transcripts in hand, no chance you could fudge.
The data where there for us all to see.
You looked at the language and asked, is that me?
The findings you found and the lessons you learned
Showed without a doubt this degree you have earned.
I meant what I said and I said what I meant
You are teacher-researchers 100%.
Your coaches and teachers salute you today
And offer best wishes as you pave the way.
As a new kind of leader to strengthen our schools
And make them all settings where collaboration rules.
And I meant what I said and I said what I meant.
Cohort Four are true leaders 100%.
[Sharon is shown.]
Sharon: Again, I wanna echo Margery's thank you to Dan Jennings and Matt Burton who were so kind and patient and so enormously helpful in putting this program together. And again to Margery also who played an incredible role in making this happen and you'll see her talents in the final coup at the end of this program.
I think we wanna just invite everybody to unmute themselves and have a cacophonic, congratulations and mazal tov to all of the graduates of Cohort Four. We are so proud of you and we offer you our warmest congratulations and we know that you will do important things in your school. Let's make a loud shout out to all of the graduates in Cohort Four.
[Sharon claps.]
Coach: Mazal tov!
Sharon: Mazal tov, congratulations! You are the best!
[Andreea is shown in her living room, walking into frame from the left of the screen into the center of the frame. She stops and waves, and walks out of frame from the right of the screen
Carl walks into frame in a white room, waves to the camera, and walks off screen.
Elana walks across the screen in a brown room, followed by two small children wearing helmets and chest plates made of cardboard and carrying cardboard scepters.
Marcie walks into frame before a large hedge outside, and waves in the center, before walking out of frame.
Matt walks into frame outside before a red house, surrounded by flowers and foliage. He carries hs daughter, and they both wave in the center of the frame, before walking off.
Michelle walks across the frame outside before some bushes, and waves in the center of the frame.
Milka walks across the frame outside before a beige fence. She waves and blows a kiss in the center of the frame.
Summer walks across a field wearing a Brandeis sweater, and waves in the center of the frame.
Jessie walks across the frame outside of a white house with a stone fountain.
Morgan walks past a house with a furry black dog, and waves in the center of the frame.
Nehama walks across the frame before a white wall, and waves in the center.
Tamar walks across the frame in a field.
Ashley walks across the frame on a beach.
Hannah walks across the frame in a room with white walls.
A blue-tinted slide shows the Louis D. Brandeis statue. White text reads:
The Candidates
Andreea Adereth*
Carl Atwood*
Elana Bailes*
Marcie Brewer*
Matthew Burns
Michelle Chan*
Milka Eliav*
Summer Gottlieb*
Jessie Heller*
Tamar Jeniski
Morgan King
Nehama Libman*
Ashley Peper
Hannah Rothschild*
*Legacy Heritage Master's Scholar]