By Vince Teresi
What makes a great teacher?
Mount Angel’s Joe Cartwright is searching for the answer.
A graduate of John F. Kennedy High School and Stanford University, Cartwright is serving as a member of the national Teach For America corps. He is a fifth-grade teacher at Clara Barton Elementary School in Milwaukee, Wis.
Teach For America’s mission is to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting the nation’s most promising future leaders in the effort. Outstanding recent college graduates from all backgrounds and career interests teach for two years in urban and rural public schools. Cartwright, 2005 Kennedy High School valedictorian; was an outstanding student. Longtime faculty members recall his superior academic performance.
Computers teacher Rob Stringer still admires the self-motivation and reliability Cartwright demonstrated as a student.
“One characteristic that really stood out about Joe was his ability to work independently, with little instruction,” Stringer said. “Whatever the situation, I was able to count on him to get the job done.”
JFK Principal Troy Stoops recalls Cartwright’s assistance at St. Mary’s Elementary School when free computer courses for Latino parents were launched during evening sessions. Cartwright spoke Spanish and volunteered to assist with instruction and interpretation.
“Joe was very well received and left an impression. That started a process that later resulted in increased parent involvement in classrooms and school activities,” Stoops said.
Teach For America corps members are provided training and ongoing support to help ensure success as teachers in low-income communities. The goal is to help students in low-income regions achieve at high levels and to demonstrate that educational inequity is a solvable problem.
Looking back upon his own experiences in high school and college, Cartwright is impressed with certain traits that were prevalent among successful teachers.
“The teachers that I admired the most during my academic career strived to make real-world connections to the material they were presenting, often bringing in news articles or video clips to showcase at the beginning of class that tied into the lesson. (It) made learning feel more meaningful,” Cartwright said.
He understands the importance of “the trait of resilience, the ability to not only bounce back from unsuccessful lessons or realizations that one’s instructional methods are ineffective, but also the strength to try, try, and try again to connect with students – even fifth graders – who display clear disinvestment in their education and other positive opportunities presented to them.”
In his present teaching situation, Cartwright feels the most rewarding factor has been “seeing how truly appreciative parents are to work with an educator who will work around-the-clock to get their son or daughter to achieve performance levels that he or she is capable of.”
He plans to apply to medical school this year. If all goes according to plan he will begin his studies following the final year of his Teach For America commitment.
“I wouldn’t consider the short stay in the classroom to be a failed attempt to recruit someone who will work to close the achievement gap,” he said. “Rather, I’d say that Teach For America has been successful in achieving one of their peripheral goals: cultivating life-long advocates of education.”
Cartwright has some advice for teenagers.
“Don’t just settle for doing what’s in front of you. Step outside of your comfort zone and see the world,” he said.
