Among the seventeen educators who gathered at The Education Cooperative (TEC) in Walpole, Massachusetts in February 2018 was Dedham teacher, Rachel Dudley. As a fellow in Cohort 1 of Fuse MA, Rachel used  her experience and expertise as a high school Social Studies teacher to coach educators in Norwood. Here, Rachel shares some of her thoughts and memories of the Fuse MA Fellowship.

What are your memories of the fellowship? How did your experience change over the year and a half?

R.D.: I really enjoyed working with teachers from other districts, both other fellows and my partner teachers. I didn’t know what to expect going into the fellowship, so the role seemed to evolve throughout the experience. 

What successes and challenges did you encounter?

R.D.: The successes were definitely working with other teachers, learning as much as I was helping others. One challenge was definitely keeping up with the work while doing my job in my district.

How has being a Fuse Fellow changed how you approach your current role? 

R.D.: I think much more about personalization now and giving students more choices in their work. I always gave some choice on things like projects, but I have included more choice in how students complete assignments–one small example is allowing the students to complete test review sheets on paper, Google docs, or Quizlet.

What advice do you have for future Fuse MA Fellows?

R.D.: You will probably learn way more than you will “teach”. The staff at Highlander is great — when you feel like you’re getting behind or not sure where to go with your partner district, reach out to them — they are so helpful!

Fuse MA blog posts written by Ken Toomey, ktoomey@fusema.org
Fuse MA Fellow, Cohort 1
Fuse MA Coordinator
Twitter: @ken_2me