Helping to give teachers a voice
Dalio-funded website lets educators tell their own stories online
If you ask a teacher why they chose to work in education, most have a story about an experience or an educator who changed their lives and how they hope to do the same for the future generation of students.
Teachers of Connecticut, sponsored by Dalio Education, is an online platform that will highlight the stories of educators around the state. The weekly posts by teachers will be available on the website, which already contains a dozen teacher stories.
“One of the things we kept hearing was that teachers sometimes feel as if their voices aren’t being heard. With so much noise out there on so many different channels, they sometimes feel as if their voices are getting lost in the mix,” Barbara Dalio, the founder and director of Dalio Education, said. “So that’s what this is: simply a platform for them to tell their stories, unfiltered, in their own words.”
The site was started after Dalio engaged with multiple teachers the last few months.
“The stories I’ve heard over the years from teachers are amazing: why they became teachers, what motivates them, the joy they feel when they break through and really connect with a student, and maybe most of all, the pride they feel when their students go on to do interesting things in life, and then come back to thank them for having been their teacher,” Dalio said.
The latest post is about Troy Williams, high school band director for the Wilton Public Schools.
Williams, a Bridgeport native, said he became a teacher to “reach them to teach them,” particularly as a Black teacher in a school district that’s mostly white.
“He spent so much time with his own mentor, Joseph DeGroate, the longtime band director for Central High School, that it influenced his path to becoming a music teacher and band director,” the story continued.
Another story is that of Elsa Batista, an eighth grade Spanish teacher for the Newington Public Schools, who not only immigrated to the United States at the age of 6, but also grew up in the Bronx during the height of the 1980s crack epidemic, the post says.
“‘I started teaching in the Bronx, and that’s how I ended up in the school that I attended when I first came to the U.S. And it was amazing,” Batista said, adding that she wanted to see the same transformation she had experienced in her students.
The online platform is advised by a group of 10
teachers and civic leaders around the state who hope to “help lead the initiative and ensure it achieves its mission of supporting public school teachers,” a news release said.
“Storytelling helps people to connect to one another, to understand different perspectives and experiences. Stories can build empathy. They can empower others,”
Sheena Graham, an advisory member and educator at Warren Harding High School in Bridgeport, said. “The stories that are already published on the Teachers of Connecticut platform are so powerful and inspiring, and truly humanizing, which means so much in our profession where teachers are not always appreciated as people with deep passion for the work we do.”
Advisory members also hope that the platform will “provide a context and awareness for policymakers that will enable them to better understand the implications of their decisions on classroom practice,” Chris Poulos, of Joel Barlow High School, said.
Dalio Education, which created, funded and will facilitate the online platform, works with local schools, teachers and nonprofits who help at-risk students engage in their schooling.
Ray and Barbara Dalio — billionaire philanthropists from Greenwich and the richest couple in Connecticut — have donated millions of dollars to public education in Connecticut. Ray Dalio is the founder and CEO of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, which is headquartered in Westport.