A lifelong love of reading and writing is behind Hannah Kittle’s passion for teaching at the Browne Middle School. Recently, Kittle was recognized for that passion when she was selected as one of 12 educators across the nation to join the Scholastic Teacher Fellows Cohort. Kittle will partner with the other educators to help design resources best equipped to meet teachers’ needs in the classroom. Kittle has a decade of experience as an educator, the last five at the Browne School as a writing and ELA teacher. She said it was her mom who first instilled a love of learning in her and helped set her on the path to becoming a teacher. “My mom was a teacher and she really instilled in me a love and a joy of reading and writing, so that was what I was really most excited about when I came to Chelsea,” said Kittle. Kittle said she jumped at the chance to apply for the Scholastic Teacher Fellows Cohort because it was an opportunity to work with other teachers across the country. “What really stood out to me was the fact that I would be able to collaborate with teachers all across the United States to get ideas and feedback and new ways of learning,” said Kittle. One thing Kittle said she is learning from the experience is how many common things are happening across education in the country, and how the teachers can bounce ideas off one another and help each other. Most of the collaboration is done online, but Kittle said the teaching fellows will meet in New York over the summer to present the findings of their capstone projects as part of the fellowship. Kittle is working with three of the other fellows to develop professional development books for new teachers. “We are gathering data and gathering research on what new educators need as they enter the field,” said Kittle. “I am really excited about this because I think especially in Chelsea the teacher turnover can be pretty high, and I believe so strongly in our Chelsea Public Schools that I want every teacher who comes to Chelsea to stay,” said Kittle. “We are developing resources and ideas for new educators to help them feel successful in their first couple of years of teaching.” While the project is geared toward new educators, Kittle said she believes it will have a positive impact on students in Chelsea and nationwide. “If we are helping prepare new teachers, that means we are getting quality educators in any space,” she said. “If we have these kinds of professional development books, these kinds of opportunities for new teachers, that will mean the quality of education in Chelsea will only continue to grow.” Overall as a teacher, Kittle said she hopes to see her students continue to thrive and grow as readers and writers, and encouraged students and families to take advantage of the resources available to them. “All teachers in Chelsea have classroom libraries, so families should encourage their students to take books home from their teachers to read,” she said. “Also, the Chelsea Public Library is wonderful. I would encourage families to take their students to the local libraries as often as possible to get new books and to just spend time looking at what is available. “Any time that a kid is reading, they are going to be smarter and grow stronger, so any kind of reading is just A-plus.” This is the second year Scholastic has undertaken the Teacher Fellows Cohort. “Our first class of Teacher Fellows tested lessons in their classrooms, surveyed their colleagues and students, shared pain points and successes, and worked side-by-side with our staff to design resources that would truly meet their needs in the classroom,” says Tara Welty, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Scholastic Teaching Solutions. “We cannot wait to see how this impressive next class of educators will share their diverse perspectives and experience to help us continue to meet the needs of teachers today and help us develop innovative and useful classroom resources.”