Chad Malone, M.A.T '06, completed an undergraduate double major in English and Art History at Middlebury College in Vermont. After finishing his B.A., he was a substitute teacher in New Hampshire for about a year and a half before coming to the Hiatt Center. He did his student teaching at the University Park Campus School (UPCS) and now teaches 8th grade English at Claremont Academy.

Why did you choose to come to Clark's Hiatt Center for your master's degree?

Chad: I remember the first day I visited Clark—a nasty February day! I went into the Hiatt Center and met Professor Marlene Shepard, who welcomed me right in. I also remember talking to Professor Heather Roberts and Director Tom Del Prete on that first day. As a prospective student I was pretty impressed by the family atmosphere the Hiatt Center, and that I was able to sit down with the leaders in the program. For me that really made the difference.

Clark specializes in educating teachers to teach in urban schools. When you applied to Clark did you know you wanted to teach in an urban school?

Chad: No. Coming to Worcester was something of a risk for me to take, because I had never lived or worked in an urban environment. I didn't know what to expect. But now there's really no place I'd rather be. Later in my career I'd like to see what teaching is like in other places, but the urban setting, if done right, can be a whole lot of fun for the teacher and student. And particularly with Clark, in this Main South neighborhood, there's the sense that we're working toward something tangible: to improve our community by reaching the kids. It's truly alluring for a teacher, because I'd like to think that most teachers go into the profession to make a difference, and the difference is very tangible in this setting.

If you come to Worcester, you'll fall in love with it. From the outside it doesn't look like much is going on. But once you come here, it's really hard not to love it and the kids. I drive around and see my kids on the street; I'll wave, and know that I'm making a difference. That's pretty special to me. I guess that's the message to people coming from outside of Worcester. Worcester's not the most glamorous city in the world, but there's no pretension. It's about good people trying to do a decent job and help out in the community. That's what lures me to this place, and to teaching these kids.

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What do you see as strengths of the Hiatt Center's M.A.T. program? If you were talking to a prospective student, what would you want him or her to know or think about?

Chad: You're going to get hands-on experience. One of the program's strengths is that on day one in September, you're in a school all day long, getting involved in the fabric of that learning community. You get that feeling of what it's like to be a teacher. We know from research that hands-on experience helps us learn. So as a learner in the Clark program, you're learning by doing, which is also the way your students will learn best. There isn't a dichotomy between what's going on in your own coursework and what's going on in your day.

And it's a long day! If you enter the Clark program, you're going to work. And that's a good thing, because nothing good is ever gained without hard work. But if you're truly passionate about teaching, you're going to get hands on experience and one on one attention. You're going to have real, tangible situations that you must deal with as a teacher that first year. Rather than being told 'this is what a teacher does,' you're going to experience it yourself. That's the way to learn in my opinion.

Also at the Hiatt Center, there's a focus on reflection, on thinking through what you're doing. You become a truly reflective practitioner of your craft. Clark does a lot to teach students about professionalism and what that means, and about being advocates for our profession. People think that as teachers we get our summers off. My summers are spent preparing and learning and being a student again.

In fact, one of the most important things for me during the M.A.T. program was to remember what it was like to be a student again. It flips your experience. And it's something that, when you move from one side of the desk to the other, is easily forgotten unless you're actively a student of your craft. If you're a teacher, you're a student all the time of your content area and of how to help kids. Clark speaks to that. That's the type of dialog that occurs in the Clark program because of the individual attention.

I understand that there is an initiative at the Claremont Academy, where you now teach, to introduce some of the educational reforms that worked well for students at UPCS.

Yes. I saw amazing teachers at UPCS, working hard in their classrooms. The same thing is going on at the ALL school, but there we're in transition. I've come to realize that each institution has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, problems and challenges.

From my perspective, good teaching and school reform begins one child at a time. The UPCS approach is founded on really close relationships between adults and kids. Ultimately good teaching comes down to a one on one connection with each student. The same teaching practices that I learned at Clark and UPCS can be transferred one kid at a time.

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It sounds like you're transferring the same personal attention that you received at the Hiatt Center to your own students.

Absolutely. Dr. McDermott, one of my mentor teachers, always said that the best teaching is one on one. That one on one approach occurs in the M.A.T. program and filters down to your teaching in your classroom.

I understand that UPCS teachers bring to their classrooms the belief that every child can succeed and go to college, and that no excuses are allowed to stand in the way of that goal.

Absolutely. Once an excuse is made for one child, it becomes easier to make the second, the third, the fourth. From there on we could make a thousand excuses. It's such a slippery slope. I tell my students that they're not allowed to use their situation or what's going on in their lives to get in the way of their education. No matter what level a child is at, we must meet them at that level, and bring them with us.

It must provide a lot of satisfaction when you see a child shift from not caring about school to becoming engaged.

It takes time. I tell my kids that just because I walk into a classroom and call myself a teacher, that doesn't mean you have to respect me. In my mind, I have to earn your respect, and vice versa--you have to earn mine. Maybe once or twice a week you'll have a transcendent moment when you know you've reached one or two kids. And you have to hold on to those moments because sometimes you'll go weeks without them! But you can never loose faith. As a public educator, you're getting paid to be there for a child, and to believe in him or her, regardless of the situation. They'll make it hard for you, but you have to be more stubborn. I only get upset with my students when they fail to believe in themselves. I hate the words 'I can't'. They're not allowed to use that word in my classroom.

I know that at the Hiatt Center and UPCS there's a strong culture of professional support. Is that something being fostered at the ALL School as well?

Absolutely. Teaching can be a lonely profession. A high percentage of teachers leave the profession during their first 5 years of teaching. They don't feel supported. The Hiatt Center is providing support by offering a class on best practice that ALL School teachers are taking together. Clark faculty come to our school on Mondays and we discuss the challenges of the classroom and try to learn with each another. The class just began and I'm already beginning to see some of the changes. We're talking to one another. We're working together. That's the direction we need to head in.

Even though I've completed my degree and am working at the Claremont Academy, I still get professional support from people at the Hiatt Center. I'm probably over there at least once a week, talking to some of my former professors-who are now colleagues-about what's working. The presence of the Hiatt Center is part of the reason I decided to stay in Worcester. I'm so thankful for the commitment that they've extended to me even though I've graduated. And I know that will continue as long as I stay in Worcester.

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