Repeat Nominee

It’s the kind of email every faculty member wants to get. The one where they learn that a former student has been honored in a big way and says thank you to the faculty member for playing a role. Senior Lecturer Pamela Mason received such an email earlier this summer from Luisa Sparrow, Ed.M.'14, a special education teacher in Boston Public Schools. Sparrow shared that she was a Massachusetts Teacher of the Year finalist — for the second year in a row. [Update: On December 4, just a couple of weeks after Ed. magazine published, the Healey-Driscoll administration announced that Sparrow was named the 2025 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year.]

Sparrow spoke to Ed. at the end of the summer about the honor and the role Mason and others have had on her career. 

What do you teach? I teach a combined fifth and sixth grade class for students with significant intellectual disabilities. It’s a self-contained classroom, meaning we teach all academic subjects. We also teach instrumental activities of daily living, which are often called “life skills.” The main life skills we address are personal hygiene, shopping for groceries, community navigation, and for some students, toileting. By “we” I mean the amazing paraprofessionals I work with every day. 

You taught similar grades in other places. What about this age appeals to you? Prior to coming to the Perry School, I taught at two schools in Texas, one school in Costa Rica, and a charter school in Boston, Match Community Day. I have taught in the range of grades 3–6 in all of these schools. I love this age group because they are still excited about school, but they are old enough to have interesting discussions about what they’re learning. More than the specific age group I work with, though, I really love working with students with significant disabilities. I love being able to focus on ways to support my students in developing greater independence and in accessing the greater community, in addition to focusing on academic skills. 

When did you know you wanted to be a teacher? Teaching has always been on my radar. When I was a kid, I loved playing school with my younger sister and “teaching” her how to read, which I didn’t actually do, ha-ha. I always enjoyed helping my friends with confusing homework questions. I didn’t start college with the set intention of becoming a teacher, but I was very drawn to the mission of Teach For America, and once I started teaching through that program, I realized how much I love it. 

It’s a process being nominated for Teacher of the Year! For me, the process began in February. This final round, which involves a classroom visit from the selection committee, plus an interview with the selection committee and former state teachers of the year, is the most challenging. On the one hand, since I teach every day, the classroom visit is not so different from my typical day-to-day. On the other hand, it is nerve-wracking to feel like your practice is being evaluated based on a single observation, when so much of teaching relies on the small ways you build relationships with students and foster learning day by day, over the course of an entire year, or in my case, multiple years, since I teach most of my students for more than one year. I do believe the panel considers all parts of the application process and doesn’t look at the observation in isolation, but it can be hard to remember this in the moment. 

What Ed School courses still have an impact on your career? The courses I took at HGSE continue to have a huge impact on my current work. Senior Lecturer Pamela Mason’s course, Literacy Assessment and Intervention Practicum, has been instrumental in helping me design and implement literacy instruction with upper elementary students who are working on foundational literacy skills. Senior Lecturer Karen Mapp’s class, Elements of Effective Family-School Partnerships, inspired me to seek more family input when designing my curriculum, and has had an impact on how I engage with my daughters’ teachers since becoming a parent. Implementing Inclusive Education, taught by Professor Tom Hehir, was pivotal in shaping my thinking about how expanding inclusive learning opportunities for students with disabilities benefits really everyone. 

People often say that teaching is a calling. Was it for you? It is a calling for me, in that I feel strongly pulled to it. I’m constantly thinking about new things to try with my students. For the two years I was working on Teach For America’s full-time staff, every time I observed in my corps members’ classrooms, I missed being in the teacher position myself. When I watched my corps members try exciting strategies, I found myself thinking, “I can’t wait to try that with my students!” Finally, I listened to that voice and decided it was time to return to the classroom after going to graduate school to learn how to be a more effective reading teacher, which is what led me to HGSE. While I have tiring days at school, overall, I feel deeply energized by my daily work. For me, yes, it’s a calling. 

Do you think it has to be? I do think there’s room for people who feel like teaching is more of a job than a calling, and I think teachers who feel this way can be very effective. I also think whether teaching feels like a calling versus a job can depend on finding the right fit: In one teaching context or grade level, teaching might feel like a stressful job leading to burn out, while in another context, teaching can feel like an energizing calling. Just as with any job, a particular teaching context that might feel draining to one person can be revitalizing to another person.