Mentor Teachers

Jess Barrett is an English as a New Language (ENL)/ English Language Arts (ELA) teacher and the bilingual coordinator at Manhattan Bridges High School, where she first worked as a Teaching Resident in TR@TC. She loves teaching creative writing alongside critical analysis of literature to ENL students. Jess has been teaching for fourteen years and mentoring for over three years.  When she’s not teaching and mentoring, Jess loves biking, reading, writing, cooking, and hiking on the weekends with her dog and her family.

What do you like about mentoring TR@TC residents? 

Residents bring their ideas, expertise, questions, and personalities to the classroom, and it’s a joy to grow alongside them. There’s never been a year where I don’t learn as much as they do in the classroom! I like to share in the optimism and vision of new teachers, and I love to help them build their experience and passion as we collaborate throughout the year.

Joe has been a middle school ICT science teacher in Manhattan for the past nine years. He loops with students in a two year cycle, teaching seventh grade general science the first year and eighth grade Living Environment (Regents) the second. He is also the science team leader, supporting all science teachers in his school community.  He loves learning through exploration, facilitating the afterschool hydroponics club, and coaching soccer.  Outside of work, he’s usually traveling and exploring as much as possible, meeting new people and making new memories

What do you like about mentoring TR@TC teaching residents? 

 There are so many positive aspects of mentoring. The support and insight that Mentor Teachers can provide are incredibly valuable for newer educators, but there are also benefits to a mentor, the students, and a school community as a whole. Residents also bring unique experiences and current theoretical frameworks to share with classroom teachers and students. With students in mind, having another highly trained and skilled adult in the classroom only benefits them. Lastly, both of our teaching practices are improved upon through reflection and TR@TC feedback cycles.

Reginald Coleman is currently a NYC public school mathematics teacher, which he has been doing for almost 16 years. Personally, he enjoys watching movies and participating in sporting activities. 

What do you like about mentoring TR@TC teaching residents?

He enjoys mentoring TR@TC residents because he gets to shape and cultivate future educators in a profession he is so passionate about.

Taiyo is a Humanities and Inclusion teacher at Forsyth Satellite Academy, where his focus is on building student engagement and access through increasing restorative/transformative practices, culturally responsive pedagogy, multidisciplinary project-based learning, and coaching basketball.  He has found great joy in teaching classes such as Poetry, Short Stories, Journalism, Malcolm X, and Facing Ferguson: Race, Rights & Activism, where the curriculum has bridged students' lives and cultures to academic literacy and processes.  He is also a writer and musician, you can find him under the pen name “Taiyo Na.”

What do you like about mentoring TR@TC teaching residents?

Mentoring TRTC residents has been a meaningful and mutually beneficial experience where residents have positively contributed to the school community and helped refine the work of teaching social justice from their own unique lived experiences.

Phill graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in literature.  He then earned masters degrees in both education and comparative literature.  He is dual certified to teach both ELA and Special Education.

Phill has been teaching for 16 years in an ICT setting at Brooklyn Collaborative Studies, where about 33% of students have disabilities.  He has taught US history and ELA for almost every grade level.

Phill is a co-founder and current member of a teacher leadership team called “The Committee for Culture and Character” (CCC).  This team acts as a voice for the teachers and discusses leadership issues and areas for growth at BCS.  They work together as a decision making body to reform and improve school policies.

He is also the tenth grade team leader and the crew team leader for twelfth grade.

What do you like about mentoring TR@TC teaching residents?

Being a teacher is very much a part of my identity and being a mentor allows me to contribute to that community.  It feels meaningful to help another person who has the same passions and goals as I do.  Mentoring allows me to continually refine my practice and be introduced to new ideas, perspectives, and techniques.  It is a great benefit to my school students to have another caring adult to support them.  I genuinely enjoy the collaborative process and the friendships that I have formed with former residents.

Vincent Pham is a humanities teacher at International High School at Prospect Heights, where he has taught 11th grade Looking for an Argument, 11th grade US History, and 12th grade US Government and Economics to recently arrived immigrant students. As the son of Vietnamese refugees escaping from the consequences of American imperialism, Vincent grew up navigating the tensions of his family's trauma as well as adapting to the "hidden curriculum" of the American public education system. Through transformative, joyful relationships with educators, Vincent obtained opportunities he could never have imagined, such as internships and fellowships to study abroad. Based on this context, Vincent wishes to support his students with their own aspirations. In his spare time, Vincent enjoys traveling (he has been to 30 countries!), YouTubing different cooking videos, playing competitive card games with his partner, and going on extremely long walks around the city.

Rosie Frascella just finished their 15th year teaching in NYC public schools.  They are a core member of the NY Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE), a member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE-UFT), and a member of Black Lives Matter at Schools NYC. When they are not teaching and organizing, Rosie loves to sing karaoke, dance like nobody's watching, and chill out with their fierce child, Niki Malaya.

What do you like about mentoring TR@TC teaching residents?

Mentoring TR@TC residents helps me continue to learn and grow as an educator. My residents help me see our classroom, school, and students with a fresh perspective. My students and I benefit from the extra ideas, questions, and love that TR@TC residents bring to our community.