Mary Lou Razza is a faculty member on the move. When asked to describe her office, she explains "my laptop and my cell phone are my office, and they move from my car to my small office at Burlington High School to my home office, and, one day a week, to my space at UVM." Her "classroom" is really all over the place, too. Mary Lou spends most of her time counseling and coaching students in UVM's teacher preparation program—work that she does on occasion with the students while at their student teaching assignments, but mostly via the telephone and email.
It's easy to see how a teacher like Mary Lou could take so well to communications tools and technology—they are critical to her accomplishing her work. But Mary Lou brings much more to the use of the tools than this, as we describe in this case study. To her, it's not just about staying in touch—it's about improving the professional life of educators and in turn, improving schools.
Mary Lou started her career in psychology and counseling, working more with community agencies and advocacy groups than with schools. Working mostly with teens, though, led her eventually to a grant project with UVM. She's been working with secondary schools ever since, and most recently on the development of the Professional Development School (PDS) model with Burlington High School.
To Mary Lou, the PDS model is an important new approach to teacher preparation because it works on building a partnership between what might seem two entirely different cultures—that of higher education and the culture of a public school. Through the PDS, she sees how educators work together to share both research and practical experiences. This dialogue helps to foster a community of educators that benefits both the school and the pre-service teachers.
The idea of building community is an important theme in Marly Lou's work. Among her objectives for the student teachers with whom she works is the goal of helping students understand the importance of relationships with their peers and colleagues. "We're isolated, as a profession," Mary Lou points out, "and I want these future teachers to get used to communicating with one another, sharing with each other, asking each other for advice. I want them to build a community."
The relationships and the community, to Mary Lou, are what her work and the Professional Development School are all about. Since she's always on the move, she doesn't have an office that she has made her own—someplace where her books or posters live. Instead, she says, her work environment is where the students are—"when they are around, I know I'm in my place." Mary Lou knows, too, how to extend that place, through a variety of teaching tools.
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