Interview with Mariama Sesay-St. Paul

In this episode, Sierah Tyson, the Education Nomad, sits down with Mariama Sesay-St. Paul to talk about literacy education that helps students meet high expectations.

Mariama Sesay-St. Paul is a vice principal of curriculum and instruction at Science Park High School in the Newark Public School District. She began her career as an educator in 2000 as a Teach For America corps member. Over the past 17 years, Mariama has assumed the roles of high school English teacher, teacher coach, department chairperson and supervisor of language arts literacy in the district’s curriculum office.

In this episode, Sierah and Mariama discuss:

• How students can rise to meet high expectations as long as you build in the scaffolds they need.
• How students should feel comfortable but not complacent, and how to ask reflective questions that keep them both comfortable and learning.
• Employing the right vocabulary to help struggling readers even if you aren’t a reading proficiency expert.
• Choosing texts that hit the standards.
• Using literacy to “open the door to opportunity.”
• One key move all educators should have in their toolkits.

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Big Idea

“Is what you do in the best interest of you or is it in the best interest of your students?”

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