Lauren Turnowski is a high school ELA teacher in New York City. For the past 18 years, Lauren has worked as both a middle and high school teacher in public schools throughout the five boroughs. During her tenure in the classroom, she has supported diverse groups of students in achieving their goals of academic success by capitalizing on her strengths in curriculum development, team leadership and coaching.

Her work has required her to conceptualize and implement an ELA curriculum from scratch that focuses on enhancing her students’ skills of intellectualism, inclusivity and empathy through a close examination of culturally relevant texts. The depth of her experiences has also supported her role as mentor and coach for school-based first-year teachers and emerging teachers from NYU, Teachers College and Brooklyn College. Her priorities as a mentor and coach have centered on serving as a strong model of best practices and providing actionable, constructive feedback that allows for purposeful reflection. Through this critical support, she has aided the growth and development of new and emerging teachers as they work to enhance their content knowledge and skills in curriculum planning and instruction.

Lauren has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Wesleyan University and a Master’s degree English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She joined the Teacher Advisory Board (TAB) because she believes in prioritizing teacher voices when developing and implementing classroom resources. Teachers are the ones on the frontlines every day, so it makes sense that their insights into what works and what doesn’t should be considered when creating materials for classroom utilization. Teacher buy-in is also important when providing school communities with resources to use; one of the best ways to ensure that teachers feel invested in the work they are being asked to do is to give them a voice in the process.

When teachers (like students!) feel that their ideas matter, they are more likely to be on board with new initiatives and directives. In order for educational resources to be current and relevant, they need to be consistently revisited and revised; teachers are the ones who can best provide this fresh perspective on the learning needs of their students, something which varies from year to year, student to student. Lauren feels confident that her experience, insights and values align closely with the mission and vision of Teaching Lab and is looking forward to being a part of the Teacher Advisory Board.