"My son is satisfied and feels supported at school. He verbalizes his contentment and love for his teachers."
"My son is satisfied and feels supported at school. He verbalizes his contentment and love for his teachers."
Third Grade Teacher at Empower Charter School
Tayo has been a valuable new team member of the Explore Schools network since September 2009. After graduating from the University of Colorado with a degree in international affairs and political science, Tayo followed her passion for education and applied to become a Teach for America corps member and was selected for placement at Empower Charter School in its founding year.
Q: How are Explore Schools different from other schools?
“Explore Schools are different in many ways. First, there is a major emphasis on professional development, which is fantastic for me as a first year teacher. There’s also lot of emphasis on having a healthy work-life balance, which you don’t see a lot of other places.”
Q: What does ‘continuous improvement look’ like across the Explore Schools network?
“At Empower, I see continuous improvement take the shape of constant reflection, and from this reflection comes improvement. We have peer observation from other teachers, or from our mentors on the academic leadership team. A lot of times you are told to get better without knowing exactly how, but here that is not the case. At Empower you are given all of the support for that improvement, which is really great.”
Q: What does the tagline ‘100% achievement’ mean to you?
“This means that 100% of the kids are learning 100% of the time, and this learning looks very different for each kid. Some children can sit down and do the math problem without any tools. For others you may have to relate it to a Justin Bieber song and give them counters or manipulators to get the problem done. One can’t use a cookie cutter approach to education and that is certainly not the case here at Empower.”
Q: Can you describe a memorable experience your first year at Empower?
“During lunch one day, one of my students was working on a whole sheet of very tricky addition problems. As she finished she said to me, ‘Ms. Adeeko, at the beginning of the year I would have never thought that I could finish these math problems in a whole day, and now I can do this whole sheet in one sitting.” When you work day by day you sometimes forget about the tremendous growth these kids have made. When you’re able to step back and look at the students’ growth, it’s amazing and really inspiring.”