Four TFA alumni receive the Distinguished Teacher recognition from Noble Schools
Four of the 12 Chicago Public School educators who received the elite Distinguished Teacher recognition from Noble Schools are Teach For America alumni. This award recognizes exemplary teachers who cultivate and lead transformational classroom spaces that empower students to reach their highest aspirations. We love to see the ways our alumni go above and beyond expectations to advance students’ academic and personal growth and strengthen their schools. We spoke to Alison Pallardy (Ohio ‘12), Brittanee Rolle (Greater Chicago–Northwest Indiana ‘14) and Emily Ross (Milwaukee ‘11), three of the alumni winners, about their impactful classroom practices and how Teach For America has shaped their journey.
Alison Pallardy
Ohio ‘12
Brittanee Rolle
Greater Chicago–Northwest Indiana ‘14
Emily Ross
Milwaukee ‘11
In your own words, what does this recognition mean to you and how do you think it will impact your role as an educator?
Alison: Receiving the Distinguished Teacher award this year has validated the choices that I have made as an educator and the successes that my students have achieved over my time at Noble. It is incredibly humbling to receive this award alongside so many incredible teachers who I have had the privilege of collaborating with and learning from in different capacities over the past 9 years. It helps build my confidence to continue to create a positive impact not only in the classroom, but as a teacher leader at both the campus and network level. Ultimately it also helps me remain in the role that I love and am passionate about: working directly with kids as a classroom teacher. This is the space where I feel I can personally affect the most change.
Brittanee: You don’t have to be perfect to be a great teacher. I’m keenly aware of my flaws and I don’t feel like I’ve arrived, but to know that even in my mistakes, I’m still arriving at greatness helps me to continue serving the Pullman/Roseland community. I think this affirms that I’m moving in the right direction and education is lifelong for me.
Emily: Earning the Distinguished Teacher Award means a whole lot to me -- from validation of my craft as a teacher to finally earning a "promotion" as a classroom educator. During my 12 years in education I have pushed myself to improve in my instruction—from curriculum development to incorporating more culturally relevant materials to student-centered pedagogy—and each year I worked on these with my manager so this award feels like a big stamp of approval to all of this effort. I became an educator because I believed that I could change the world within the four walls of my classroom and to be honest, the world feels scarier today than it did when I started. I believe that as a teacher I have an unparalleled opportunity to change the worlds of so many people year after year. Since 2020 the job has gotten more challenging so to earn this award now makes me feel like I'm still doing something right and the worlds of the teenagers in my history classroom are still changing for the better. At the end of the day, that's what will impact my students' lives most—a classroom that challenges and supports them.
What are some ways you have created a strong classroom culture that empowers and connects your students?
Alison: When writing my classroom vision this school year I reflected over my past 10 years of teaching experience and the shifts in mindsets and teaching practice I have made through constant reflection, PD, and a desire for continued growth as an educator. I crafted a vision that would encapsulate the holistic experience my students would have in our course. At the forefront of my practice is centering student experiences, cultures, and knowledge that they bring with them and leveraging those to create a classroom culture of safety, a place where students are the experts of their lived experiences, and where they have the opportunity to connect their lived experiences to the content of the course. The first example of this is the first week of norm setting. I chose classroom norms that were not only deeply connected to the Ethnic Studies content, but also reflective of my students’ unique identities, stories, and connections to people and community. During the first week of school I presented 5 norms to my students: Love and Respect, Hope, Community, Solidarity, and Self-Determination. Students then defined these norms and created concrete actions that we would all take to embody these norms during class. I wanted students to name these actions and recognize that all of us, teachers and students, are accountable to them. Students generated descriptors in small groups and I compiled the student responses live in class to emphasize the fact that their voices shape our work together.
Brittanee: I have a daily affirmation that students join in saying with me “Do your best because it is always enough”. I think it pushes my students to take risks and complete tasks even on rough days. We also prioritize the writers journal in our classroom which is a journal where they have creative writing freedom and they get to explore their literary practice. They also share those entries in class. This creates a community that celebrates writing.
Emily: As a history teacher, I have a great opportunity every day to include and celebrate all students in my curriculum. To do this, I always start with creating a positive learning environment so that students feel safe, seen, valued, and heard. After over a decade in the classroom, I’ve learned that my favorite and most effective way to do this is by building individual relationships with students. This does not happen in just a quick greeting at the door or with an encouraging piece of feedback on an assignment. Relationships with all students - not just a few - take a lot of time and investment. This happens in the minutiae of the every day. In addition to building relationships, I want to gather data frequently about how my students are feeling in my class. As seasons change and days get shorter, student moods might change in my class too. I want to gather consistent data to help me understand how and where I can improve in my teacher-to-student and student-to-student relationships so I create frequent classroom surveys. Finally, as a female student growing up, I rarely saw myself in my own history textbooks or on the posters in my history classrooms. This year, 52% of my students identify as female and 96% of my students identify as Latinx/Hispanic. To ensure that my students see and celebrate their identities in my World History classroom, I purposefully choose culturally relevant and sustaining content. For all of my students, we use a critical lens to view the history of the patriarchy and how systems of oppression continue to manifest themselves in our world today. We talk about positions of power and how our identities might intersect in ways where our racial identity is oppressed but our gender is in a position of power. or how women are oppressed in nearly every empire. But what I want to do in my class is celebrate students’ identities and histories while also equipping them with a critical lens to better understand larger patterns of history like oppression, power, and hierarchy. I believe these lessons demonstrate my commitment to celebrating my students’ intersectional identities.
In what ways did Teach For America provide you with the skills, resources, or support necessary to achieve exceptional results in the classroom?
Alison: I served as a corps member in Southwest Ohio their inaugural year, 2012. I have immense pride in the community and group of incredible individuals I was a part of in SWO. The biggest takeaway for me was the sense of community and belonging that this group of individuals created for me as a first year teacher. We became a close knit community led by our fearless, Ben Lindy. His leadership is still one that I hold as an exemplar for myself in the way I lead my students, my teams and the broader Noble community. Ben led with humility and kindness. He put people and families first. And he never wavered from the core belief that all students can achieve greatness and deserve the highest quality education possible. Those are the skills, mindsets and traits that I try to embody in all that I do.
Brittanee: I’m an extremely reflective teacher. When exit slips don’t show mastery or students express confusion during instruction, I'm analyzing my practice critically to determine the point of failure. I’m not afraid to admit my failures and TFA gave me that frame of mind. Additionally, I love observations. I think it’s the most powerful tool for growth. I’m always inviting people in my classroom and it keeps me doing my best work. Observations are vital to the TFA model and have made me seek out this in my coaching relationships at my school.
Emily: Teach For America was the starting point of my career as an educator. What made TFA such a rich experience for me was the community in which I learned. From the beginning, TFA was a space of educators who were aligned in values and focused on the mission of educational equity. So much has changed in the 12 years since I was a corps member (in terms of how we approach classroom management or school discipline or teacher recruitment), but what has remained constant is my commitment to learning and growing in community. Schools are better places for kids and communities when the teachers and staff are constantly learning and growing together and as such, I'm excited to see some of my colleagues apply for the DT Award this upcoming year because when one of us is better, we're all better.